Street fighting, constant bombing as Russia pushes for control of Ukraine’s Donbas

Kyiv (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops engaged in fierce street fighting with Russian soldiers in the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, while other cities were under constant shelling, as the Kremlin pushed for control of the eastern Donbass region.

Sievierodonetsk has become the main target of Russia’s offensive in Donbas, which encompasses Lugansk and Donetsk provinces, as the invasion continues in a war of attrition that has seen cities flattened by artillery shelling.

“In the city, fierce street fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address on Monday.

“They outnumber us, they are more powerful,” Zelenskiy told reporters at a briefing. But Ukrainian forces have “every chance” to fight back, he added.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russia is also dropping troops and equipment in its campaign to capture Ukraine’s largest remaining city of Luhansk.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Monday the situation had worsened after Ukrainian defenders pushed the Russians back over the weekend when they appeared close to victory.

In its overnight update, the Ukrainian military said two civilians were killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Monday and that Russian forces had fired on more than 20 communities.

In addition to artillery shelling, the enemy fired from planes and helicopters in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Tuesday.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports. Russia denies targeting civilians in the conflict.

Russia says it is on a mission to “liberate” Donbas, partly controlled by separatist Moscow proxies since 2014, after Ukrainian forces expelled its troops from the capital Kyiv and Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv. in the early stages of the war.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but calls its action a “special military operation” to stamp out what it sees as threats to its security. Ukraine and its Western allies call this an unfounded pretext for a war to seize territory that risks escalating into a wider European conflict.

CONSTANT DISCHARGE

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that Russian forces were also advancing towards Sloviansk, which is about 85 km (53 miles) west of Sievierodonetsk.

“The front line is under constant shelling,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.

“The enemy is also shelling near Lyman with the aim of destroying our defensive positions and advancing on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. There are also bombings of Svyatohirsk with the same objective”, he added.

Kyrylenko said efforts were underway to evacuate people from several cities, some under attack day and night, including Sloviansk, which still has some 24,000 residents there.

“People are now understanding, even though it’s late, that it’s time to go,” he said.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter Tuesday that Russia’s broader plan here it probably remains to isolate the Sievierodonetsk area from both the north and the south.

Russia’s progress made through May on the southern Popasna axis stalled over the past week, while reports of heavy shelling near Izium suggest Russia was preparing to make a renewed effort on the northern axis, the ministry said.

“Russia will almost certainly need to make a breakthrough on at least one of these axes to translate tactical gains into success at the operational level and move towards its political goal of controlling all of Donetsk Oblast,” he said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the ministry’s report.

In a coordinated move with the United States, Britain said it would supply Ukraine with multiple launch rocket systems that can hit targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away, providing the more precise long-range firepower needed to hit Russian artillery batteries. .

Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was gradually receiving “specific anti-ship systems”, and that this would be the best way to end the Russian blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports that prevent grain exports.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond to Western deliveries of long-range weapons by pushing Ukrainian forces further from the Russian border.

On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would attack new targets if the West supplied longer-range missiles. On the same day, Russian missiles hit Kyiv for the first time in more than a month.

The United States, which reopened its embassy in Kyiv in May after a nearly three-month closure, said the stance of its embassy in the Ukrainian capital remains unchanged.

Western countries have imposed sanctions of unprecedented scope and severity on Russia for its invasion.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had imposed personal sanctions on 61 US officials, including the Treasury and Energy secretaries and top defense and media executives. The move, he said, was in retaliation for the “steady expansion of US sanctions.”

(This story is being re-archived to correct the typo in the title.)