Heavy fighting for Sievjerodonetsk
Separatists promise humanitarian corridor
06/16/2022, 12:56 p.m
The eastern Ukrainian city of Sievjerodonetsk has been the subject of fierce fighting for weeks. Thousands of civilians are said to be holding out there. Governor Hajdaj declares that the Ukrainian army is “holding back the enemy as best it can”. Meanwhile, the pro-Russian separatists promise a corridor for civilians.
Russian-backed separatists are again announcing a humanitarian corridor in the heavily contested city of Sievarodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. Separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the corridor would be reopened so that civilians could exit the Azot chemical plant. Hundreds of civilians would remain there to protect themselves from the fighting.
In eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian troops continue to fight heavily in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In the direction of the city of Bakhmut, there are Russian attacks “to improve the tactical situation,” the Ukrainian general staff said on Facebook. The towns of Wessele, Soledar, Berestowe and Vowchojarivka were under artillery fire. There is also heavy fighting in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. The Russians also tried to attack in the direction of Sloviansk. There was also artillery fire on sections of the front in the areas of Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Cherson and Mykolaiv.
Around 10,000 civilians remain in the city
The city of Sievjerodonetsk is still particularly hotly contested. Part of the industrial city is apparently still under Ukrainian control. According to Ukrainian sources, there are still thousands of civilians there. “Of the 100,000 inhabitants, about 10,000 are still there, not counting the victims,” said the governor of the Donbass sub-region of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajday, on Telegram. The Ukrainian army is “holding back the enemy as best it can”.
The Russian army is losing “hundreds of fighters” there, but is always bringing new supplies. They “continue the destruction of Sieverodonetsk”. It is the last major city in the Luhansk region that Russia has not yet conquered. Sieverodonetsk and the city of Lysychansk on the other side of the river Siverskyi Donets have been under heavy shelling for weeks.
In Sievjerodonetsk there are also regular street fights. Finally, the Russian troops appeared on the verge of taking complete control of the city. They destroyed three bridges to Lysychansk, leaving the remaining Ukrainian troops largely cut off.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, Ukraine apparently managed to withdraw a large part of its combat troops from the city of Sieverodonetsk. In addition, Russian troops in Sieverodonetsk would probably have to cross the river there or advance on its flanks after all the main bridges over the Siversky River, which connects the city to Ukrainian-held territory, are likely to have been destroyed. Russia’s combat troops in the Donbass were most likely operating in increasingly ad hoc and severely undermanned formations, according to the intelligence report published on Twitter.