Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces fighting Russian troops in a key eastern city appeared poised to withdraw Wednesday, though the regional governor insisted they were still fighting “for every inch” of the city.
The urban battle for Sievierodonetsk witnessed the painstaking inch-by-inch advance by Russian forces as they close in on control of the entire Lugansk region, one of two that make up the industrial heartland known as Donbas.
After an unsuccessful attempt to invade Kyiv in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to the region from coal mines and factories. The region has been controlled in part by Russian-backed separatists for years, shortening supply lines and allowing Moscow to take advantage of separatist forces to support its offensive. But Russia is also facing Ukraine’s most seasoned troops, who have been fighting separatists there for eight years.
The result is slow work with both sides trading artillery barrages that seemingly inflict heavy losses and neither seems to have the clear momentum.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai acknowledged the difficulties in Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday, telling The Associated Press that “we may have to withdraw, but there are ongoing battles in the city right now.”
Earlier, on the Telegram messaging app, he said that Ukrainian forces were fighting “for every inch of the city.”
He indicated that they could retreat to positions that are easier to defend. The city across the river, Lysychansk, is on higher ground.
Sievierodonetsk became the region’s administrative capital after separatists seized the city of Luhansk in 2014. Both it and Lysychansk are caught between Russian forces to the east, north and south, and are among the few cities and towns in Lugansk who still resist. .
The Kremlin has claimed that its forces control almost all of the Luhansk region and about half of the Donetsk region that makes up the Donbas.
Meanwhile, to the north, Russian shelling of the northern Kharkiv region has killed five people and wounded 12 more in the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Wednesday.
The Russian military said Wednesday that Moscow used “high-precision air-launched missiles” to attack an armor repair plant near Kharkiv. There was no confirmation from Ukrainian officials that such a plant was attacked.
On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed a plan with Turkish officials on Wednesday that could allow Ukraine to export its grain. across the Black Sea to world markets amid a growing global food crisis.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and Russia’s blockade of its ports have stopped much of that flow, jeopardizing food supplies for many developing countries. Many of those ports are now heavily mined as well.
It is estimated that there are 22 million tons of grain in silos in Ukraine.
Turkey hopes to negotiate a safe corridor, possibly supervised by the UN, for the shipment of Ukrainian grain, as well as Russian food and fertilizer.
Before Russia’s invasion on February 24, Ukrainian officials said Russia controlled about 7% of the country. including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and separatist-held areas in Donetsk and Lugansk. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces controlled 20% of the country.
While Russia has superior firepower, the Ukrainian defenders are entrenched and have demonstrated counter-attack capabilities.
“The absolutely heroic defense of the Donbas continues,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday night in his late-night video address.
Speaking earlier at a Financial Times conference, Zelenskyy insisted on Ukraine’s need to defeat Russia on the battlefield, but also said he is still open to peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking at a news conference after the talks with Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country is “much more optimistic” that Russia and Ukraine can be persuaded to return to talks aimed at to end the war. Talks between the two sides organized by Turkey earlier in the conflict did not produce any progress.
But a former top US intelligence official said the time is not right.
“You’re not going to come to the negotiating table until neither side feels like they have an advantage that they can push,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor of the Washington-based Center for a New American Security.
The Russians “think they will be able to take the whole Donbas and then they could use that as an opportunity to call for negotiations,” Kendall-Taylor said at a webinar hosted by Columbia and New York universities.
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Associated Press journalists Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv; Yuras Karmanau in Lviv; and Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Reference-apnews.com