Ukraine said on Friday that its forces may have to withdraw from its last resistance bag in Luhansk to avoid being captured by Russian troops pushing for an advance east that has changed the momentum of the three-man war. months.
A withdrawal could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of capturing the entire Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine. His troops have gained ground in the two areas collectively known as the Donbas as they have blown up some desolate cities.
Read more: Russian separatists call for control of key city in Ukraine’s Donbass
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops had entered Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still in Ukraine, after trying to trap Ukrainian forces for days. Gaidai said 90% of the city’s buildings were damaged.
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“The Russians will not be able to capture the Luhansk region in the next few days, as analysts have predicted,” Gaidai told Telegram, referring to Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk across the Siverskiy Donets River.
“We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, we may have to withdraw in order not to be surrounded. “
Moscow’s separatist representatives say they now control Lyman, a railway hub west of Sievierodonetsk. Ukraine said Russia had captured most of Lyman, but that its forces were blocking an advance on Sloviansk, a city half an hour’s drive further southwest.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was protecting its land “as far as our current defense resources allow.” The Ukrainian army said it had repulsed eight attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk on Friday, destroying tanks and armored vehicles.
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“If the occupiers think that Lyman and Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian, “Zelenskyy said in a speech in the evening.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Bloomberg UK that Putin “costs him and the Russian army a lot, he continues to chew the ground in the Donbas”.
Russian troops advanced after drilling Ukrainian lines last week in the town of Popasna, south of Sievierodonetsk. Russian ground forces have now captured several villages northwest of Popasna, the British Defense Ministry said.
Achieved by Reuters reporters in Russian-controlled territory on Thursday, Popasna was in ruins. The swollen body of a dead man in a combat uniform lying in a courtyard could be seen.
Natalia Kovalenko had left the cellar where she had taken refuge to live among the remains of her flat, with her windows and balcony destroyed. He said a shell struck the outer courtyard, killing two people and injuring eight.
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“I just have to fix the window somehow. The wind still hurts,” he said. “We’re tired of being so scared.”
Russia’s gains in the east follow a Ukrainian counteroffensive that pushed back Moscow forces from Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv in May. But Ukrainian forces have been unable to attack Russian supply lines in the Donbas.
Russian forces bombed parts of Kharkiv on Thursday for the first time in days. Local authorities said nine people were killed. The Kremlin denies targeting civilians.
In the south, where Moscow has seized a strip of territory since the Feb. 24 invasion, including the strategic port of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials believe Russia wants to impose permanent rule.
The Ukrainian military says Russia was sending military equipment from Crimea annexed to Russia to build defenses against any counterattack and was exploiting the margins of a reservoir behind a dam on the Dnipro River separating forces.
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In the northern Crimean region of Kherson, Russian forces were stepping up defenses and bombing areas controlled by Ukraine on a daily basis, Ukrainian Gov. Hennadiy Laguta told a media conference.
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He said the humanitarian situation was critical in some areas and that people found it almost impossible to leave the occupied territory, except for a convoy of 200 cars that left on Wednesday.
At the diplomatic level, European Union officials said an agreement could be reached on Sunday to ban deliveries of Russian oil by sea, which accounts for about 75 percent of the bloc’s supply, but not by pipeline. commitment to win Hungary and unlock new sanctions. . Read the whole story
Zelenskyy has criticized the EU for doubting Russia’s energy ban, saying the bloc was funding Moscow’s war effort and that the delay “only means killing more Ukrainians”.
Read more: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy orders end visa-free travel for Russians: “Important and vital”
In a phone call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Putin maintained his line that a global food crisis caused by the conflict can only be resolved if the West lifts sanctions.
Nehammer, who visited Russia in April, said Putin had expressed his willingness to discuss a prisoner-of-war exchange with Ukraine, but said: “Whether he is really willing to negotiate is a complex issue.”
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports has halted shipments of grain, driving up world prices, with both countries the main exporters of grain. Russia accuses Ukraine of exploiting ports, and Ukraine has called Russia’s position a “blackmail.”
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Russia, which calls its invasion a “special military operation”, launched its assault in part to ensure that Ukraine does not join the US-led NATO military alliance.
1:17 Ukrainian President Zelensky criticizes calls for exchange of territory for a peace deal with Russia.
But the war has pushed Sweden and Finland, which were neutral during the Cold War, to apply to join NATO in one of the most significant changes in European security in decades.
Offers from the Nordic states have been caught in the face of opposition from NATO member Turkey, which claims to house people linked to a militant group it considers a terrorist organization. Swedish and Finnish diplomats met in Turkey on Wednesday to try to bridge their differences.
“It’s not an easy process,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Friday, adding that Sweden and Finland must take “difficult” steps to get Ankara’s support.
(Report by Natalia Zinets, Conor Humphries and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, Vitaliy Hnidyi in Kharkiv and Reuters reporters in Popasna; written by Peter Graff, Catherine Evans and Rami Ayyub; edited by Philippa Fletcher, Edmund Blair and Grant McCool)