KRAMATORSKY, UKRAINE (AP) – The city of Sivierododonetsk, in eastern Ukraine, destroyed by Russia, was on the brink of another Mariupol on Monday, as services and aid were cut and Moscow tried to take over the entire Donbass region. industrial estate in Ukraine.
The governor of the Luhansk region, Sergi Haidai, said the Russians had entered outside Sievierdonetsk and were advancing towards nearby Lisichansk. He said two civilians had been killed and five wounded in Russia’s recent bombing of the war.
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were strengthening their positions in the northeastern and southeastern suburbs of Sivierododetsk and bringing additional equipment and ammunition to the area to carry out the attack.
Russian forces attacked Sivierododetsk after an unsuccessful siege attempt, Ukrainian officials said, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation there as “indescribably difficult”. Russia’s intense artillery bombardment destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of buildings.
Sievierdonetsk, located 143 kilometers (89 miles) south of the Russian border, has been the center of fighting in the Donbas in recent days. Mariupol was a city on the Sea of Azov that spent nearly three months under Russian siege before the last Ukrainian fighters surrendered.
Sievierdonetsk and Lisichansk include the strategically important Siversky Donetsk River. They are the last territories under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk region, which forms the Donbass along with the Donetsk region.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told French TV station TF1 on Sunday that “Moscow’s unconditional priority is the liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, adding that Russia considers them “independent states”. He also offered to establish closer ties with Russia in other regions of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army reported intense fighting around Donetsk, the provincial capital, as well as in the northern port of Liman, a town that serves as a railway hub in the Donetsk region.
“The enemy is strengthening its units,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said. “He’s trying to assert himself on this side.”
Zelensky addresses Monday EU leaders gathering Amid a split in a new show of solidarity with Ukraine, whether Russian oil is targeted in a new round of sanctions. It has repeatedly called on the EU to target Russia’s profitable energy sector and deprive Moscow of billions of dollars in daily supplies.
On Sunday, Zelensky visited troops in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second -largest city, where Ukrainian fighters pushed Russian forces back from nearby positions a few weeks ago. Russia continued to bomb the northeastern city from afar, and explosions were heard after Zelensky’s visit. The region’s governor, Ole Siniehubov, said the bombing and air strikes had destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings in the city since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
In a video speech on Sunday, Zelensky praised Kharkiv region officials but said he fired the regional head of the country’s highest security agency, the SBU, for his poor performance. Zelensky said that in the vast Kharkiv region, Russian troops still occupy almost a third of the territory.
In Lugansk, Russia’s continued bombing has created what provincial governor Serhi Haidai called a “difficult situation”. But Lugansk’s delivery and evacuation routes were working on Sunday, he said. He said the Russians had made a “leak” around a village near Sievierdonetsk, but carried out air strikes in another nearby river village.
Sivierododetsk Mayor Alexander Stryuk estimates that 1,500 civilians have died in the city since the war began due to Russian attacks, as well as a lack of medicine or treatment.
The Institute for War Studies, a Washington, DC -based think tank, has questioned the Kremlin’s approach to mobilizing massive military efforts to capture Siverodonetsky, saying it would be too expensive for Russia and would bring in a small salary.
In Mariupol on Sunday, the mayor told his Ukrainian aide that after Russian forces took control of the city, they dumped the corpses of the dead in a supermarket. Petro Andriushchenko posted a photo on Telegram’s messaging app showing corpses lined up on closed supermarket counters. His claim could not be immediately verified.
Reported by Ricardo Mazalan of Kiev. AP reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
Source: Huffpost
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