Russian and Ukrainian troops took part in a hand-to-hand combat on Sunday in an eastern Ukrainian city as Moscow troops, backed by heavy bombardment, tried to gain strategic points to conquer the region in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces “assaulted” Severodonetsk after unsuccessfully trying to encircle the city. The clashes left power and mobile phone service, and a humanitarian aid center was unable to operate due to the danger, the mayor said.
Severodonetsk, located about 140 kilometers south of the Russian border, has emerged in recent days as the epicenter of Moscow’s search to capture the entire industrial region of Ukraine’s Donbass. Russia also stepped up its efforts to capture nearby Lysychansk, where civilians rushed to escape persistent bombing.
The two eastern cities are home to the strategically important Siverskyi Donets River. They are the last large areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk Oblast, which forms the Donbas along with neighboring Donetsk.
Russia is focused, after failing to seize the Ukrainian capital, on occupying parts of the Donbas that are not yet controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
Russian forces have made small strides in recent days as bombings chewed up Ukrainian positions and kept civilians trapped in basements or desperately trying to get out safely.
Attacks to destroy military targets across the country also claimed casualties in civilian areas.
Civilians arriving in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, about 130 kilometers south of Lysychansk, said they held out as long as they could before fleeing the Russian advance.
Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk regional governor, said the constant bombing created a “grave” situation in Lysychansk. “There are fatalities and injuries,” he wrote in the Telegram messaging application, without giving further details.
On Saturday, he said, one civilian was killed and four were injured after a Russian shell hit an apartment building.
But some Luhansk supply and evacuation routes were still operating on Sunday, he said. He claimed that the Russians had retreated “with losses” from the vicinity of a village near Severodonetsk, but carried out airstrikes on another nearby village on the Siverskyi Donets River.
A patient is loaded on Sunday on a medical evacuation train in Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. (Francisco Seco / The Associated Press)
Severodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there were fights at the city’s bus station on Saturday. Residents left in the city, which had a pre-war population of about 100,000, risked exposure to bombing to get water from half a dozen wells, and there was no electricity or service. mobile phone, Striuk said.
Striuk has estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in Russian attacks since the start of the war, as well as a lack of medicines and diseases that could not be treated.
Deteriorating conditions led to fears that Severodonetsk could become the nearby Mariupol, a port city 280 kilometers south that had been under siege for nearly three months before the last Ukrainian fighters surrendered.
Ukrainian soldiers travel on Sunday in a military vehicle in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)
Regions of Ukraine were hit overnight by new Russian airstrikes. In the eastern Donetsk region, fighters fought back and forth for control of towns and cities.
The Ukrainian army reported heavy fighting around Donetsk, the provincial capital, as well as Lyman in the north. The small town serves as a key railway hub in the Donetsk region. Moscow on Saturday claimed to have taken Lyman, but Ukrainian authorities said its fighters continued to fight in parts of the city.
“The enemy is strengthening its units,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an operational update. “He’s trying to get his foot in the door.”
Zelensky visits the front line
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a rare front-line visit to the city of Kharkiv while trying to assert the strength of Ukraine’s position there. Ukrainian fighters pushed back Russian forces from positions close to the city, Ukraine’s second-largest, a few weeks ago.
“I feel unlimited pride in our defenders. Every day, risking their lives, they fight for the freedom of Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging application after visiting soldiers stationed in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the center is inspecting damaged buildings during a visit on Sunday in the northeastern region of Kharkiv. (Presidential Press Office of Ukraine / The Associated Press)
Russia has kept bombing the northeastern city from afar, and explosions could be heard in the area shortly after Zelensky’s visit. Bombings and airstrikes have destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
In the wider Kharkiv region, Russian troops still held about 30 percent of the territory, while Ukrainian troops had recovered another five percent, the governor said.
However, Zelensky acknowledged that the battle for the east is “indescribably difficult.” “The Russian army is trying to get at least some results” by concentrating its attacks there, he said in a video address Saturday night.
Refugees arrive in Canada
A second charter flight with Ukrainian refugees landed Sunday morning at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
More than 300 Ukrainians flew to Montreal from Poland shortly before 11 a.m. ET after being approved for emergency travel to Canada.
The flight was the second federally chartered aircraft to arrive in the country in seven days after a first flight arrived in Winnipeg last Monday. A third flight to Halifax is scheduled to land on Thursday.
A Ukrainian refugee on the right is being hugged after arriving at Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport on Sunday morning. More than 300 Ukrainians flew to Montreal from Poland after being approved for emergency travel to Canada. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press)
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has said the three flights will carry about 900 Ukrainians approved for emergency travel to Canada.
The federal government has already welcomed thousands of Ukrainians since Russian forces first attacked on February 24. According to federal government data, Canada has received just over 259,000 applications for temporary residency as of May 25, with 120,668 of these applications approved.
The United Nations says more than 6.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country.