A Moscow backed separatist leader said that Russian forces had not advanced as rapidly as they had hoped in the battle for Sievierodonetsk, the easternmost city still in Ukraine’s hands, a report by state-run TASS news agency yesterday said.
Russia has been seeking to seize the entire Donbas, consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk, which Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
Capturing the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets river would give Moscow effective control of Luhansk and allow the Kremlin to declare some form of victory after more than three months of war.
Photo: AFP
The leader of the Moscow-backed Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, told TASS that one-third of Sievierodonetsk was “already under our control,” but progress less rapid than hoped.
The advance of Russian troops was complicated by the presence of several large chemical plants in the Sievierodonetsk area, TASS reported.
In the south, Kyiv said its forces had pushed back Russian troops to defensive positions in Andriyivka, Lozove and Bilohorka, villages on the southern bank of the Inhulets River that forms the border of Kherson Province, where Moscow is trying to consolidate control.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims from either side.
Ukraine has called for the West to send more long-range weapons, but US President Joe Biden said Washington would not send Ukraine rocket systems that can reach into Russia, a decision Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called “rational.”
Zelenskiy said Russian forces again shelled the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Monday, as well as the border region of Sumy, which was hit from inside Russia.
Russian shelling has reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins, but the Ukrainian defense has slowed the wider Russian campaign across the Donbas region.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops had advanced into Sievierodonetsk’s southeastern and northeastern fringes, but Ukrainian forces had driven them from the village of Toshkivka to the south.
“They use the same tactics over and over again. They shell for several hours — for three, four, five hours — in a row and then attack,” he said. “Those who attack die. Then shelling and attack follow again, and so on until they break through somewhere.”
With temperatures rising, there was a “terrible smell of death” on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, Gaidai said.
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