Russian troops now control “about half” of the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, an official said, and British intelligence warns that “gains are being maintained.”
Ukrainian soldiers are struggling to maintain control of the strategic city, but currently the evacuation of civilians is not possible, added Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the city administration.
“The city is still in the hands of Ukraine, and it is fighting … (but) evacuations are not possible because of the fighting,” he told Ukrainian television.
The battle is raging in Russia’s key city: live updates from Ukraine
Russia is focusing on “liberating” the eastern Donbas region as part of its “special military operation” after facing fierce Ukrainian resistance in the north.
Russia-backed separatists control part of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that make up the Donbass, and Vladimir Putin wants it entirely in pro-Russian hands.
If his forces captured Severodonetsk, he would give Moscow control of all of Luhansk, and it would be his greatest victory in the invasion to date.
Yesterday, Russian forces were at the eastern end of Severodonetsk and had taken a power plant and a hotel. Overnight, they moved slowly to the city center.
Small Ukrainian units holding back the Russian advance have had to withdraw, with reports suggesting they are moving west of the Siverskyi Donets River into the city of Lysychansk.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Lugansk, told Ukrainian state television that there were about 15,000 civilians left in Severodonetsk.
Reporting from the city, Alex Crawford of Sky found that tensions were rising among those who chose to stay, as most of its 120,000 people had fled the brutal bombardment of Russian artillery.
Haidai said Ukrainian troops defending Severodonetsk could retreat across the Siverskyi Donets River to Lysychansk to escape the siege.
Moscow’s main target is likely to remain the encirclement of Severodonetsk and the closure of the pocket around Ukrainian forces in Luhansk Oblast, the UK Ministry of Defense said.
“Intense bombing continues, while street fights are likely to take place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk,” he said in his latest Twitter update.
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3:10 ‘This is becoming another Mariupol’
Russian gains “hold”
“Progress has been slow, but gains remain,” the defense ministry said.
“Pocket routes are likely to remain under Ukrainian control. Russia has achieved greater local success than at the beginning of the campaign by accumulating forces and fire in a relatively small area. This forces Russia to accept the risk elsewhere in the territory. busy “.
He said: “Russia’s political goal is likely to occupy the entire territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces.
“To achieve this, Russia will have to secure more difficult operational targets beyond Severodonetsk, including the key city of Kramatorsk and the main M04 Dnipro-Donetsk highway.”
Sky’s Alistair Bunkall, located in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, said the “street-by-street” battle for Severodonetsk could reach its final hours and days.
“If Russian forces successfully capture the city, and this seems likely, they will be able to claim control of the entire Luhansk region, their biggest victory in the three-month conflict so far.”
Severodonetsk is becoming “another Mariupol,” according to security analyst Professor Michael Clarke.
However, the push has weakened Russian forces elsewhere: in Kharkiv, further north, the country’s second largest city, and also in Kherson in the southwest, towards Mykolaiv, the gateway to the strategic port city of the Black Sea in Odessa.
The port city of Kherson was one of the first in Ukraine to fall under Russian control.
“It is clear that the Russians are putting pressure on Kherson, which from a Ukrainian point of view will give them something else to worry about as they advance on Severodonetsk, because if they lose ground in Kherson they will have to divert their forces. something about it, “said Professor Clarke.
Other news Russia’s Defense Ministry says forces have shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine and bombed a radar station and two ammunition depots in eastern Ukraine • A ship has left a port in the besieged city of Mariupol for the first time since Kremlin forces captured the region and is heading east. Russia reports Interfax news agency, citing Russia-backed separatist leader in the Ukrainian separatist region of Donetsk • Belarus will conduct military mobilization exercises in June and July near the border with Ukraine, according to the state agency BelTA News.
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600 Russian war crimes suspects are identified
The battle for the Donbas continued when two captured Russian soldiers were sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for bombing Derhachi, a city in eastern Ukraine.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, who heard the verdict in a reinforced glass box in the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, both pleaded guilty last week.
No one was injured in the attack, which destroyed a school, according to the court.
The couple was jailed because Kyiv’s top prosecutor said more than 600 Russian war crimes suspects had been identified, and cases against 80 of them had already begun.
The list includes “Russia’s top military, politicians and propaganda agents,” Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague.
It comes when the EU agreed to ban about 75% of Russian oil imports.
The embargo covers Russian oil supplied by sea, but has a temporary exception for imports delivered by pipeline to appease Hungary and other countries concerned about the economic impact of a total ban.
Hungary gets more than 60% of its oil from Russia and depends on crude oil from the Soviet-era Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline.