The last bridge connecting Sievierodonetsk to Lyssytchansk is now impassable. The administrative capital of the province of Luhansk, almost completely conquered by the Russian army, is not completely surrounded, but it is under constant fire from Russian artillery and communications with the rear have become very complicated. . “The situation is extremely bad,” recognizes the Luhansk police commander, Colonel Oleh Hryhorov, who goes back and forth between Bakhmout, his rear base, and the Luhansk pocket.
What worries the Ukrainian fighters is not Sievierodonetsk, the city having been considered lost for several weeks, but the possible encirclement of its twin city, Lyssytchansk, which the Russian army is attacking both from the north and from South. If it fell, it would be the end of the Luhansk pocket.
The Luhansk region is, along with that of Donetsk, Moscow’s priority target since the failure of the offensive against kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. The conquest of the two provinces of Donbass, partially occupied since 2014, was moreover the official objective of Russia at the outbreak of the war, on February 24, when the President, Vladimir Putin, claimed to want to stop the “genocide” Russian speakers in the Donbass. The population has since denied it, 90% of the inhabitants having taken refuge elsewhere in Ukraine, or abroad.
In Sievierodonetsk, only a few thousand inhabitants remain. They survive without water, without electricity, and now without supplies. Five hundred of them took refuge in the vast Azot chemical factory. “Sievierodonetsk is the most bombed place” of the Donbass and the civilians of Azot “refuse to evacuate”, said the governor of Luhansk, Serhi Haïdaï.
The last passable road
The question of the evacuation of the civilians of Azot, who are entrenched there with the defenders of the city, could be the final episode of the battle before the fall of Sievierodonetsk. The two enemy countries discussed their fate, without reaching an agreement. For kyiv, the fact that they followed the fighters into the factory would indicate that they wanted to be evacuated to Ukraine. For Moscow, the fact that they are among the last inhabitants left in town means that they wish to remain on the Russian side. Mr. Haïdaï especially believes that“they think it’s safer to stay there” for the moment.
In Lyssytchansk, from where Ukrainian artillery is trying to slow down the Russian advance, a missile struck, on Friday June 17, the House of Culture transformed into a humanitarian center, where the inhabitants of the city are refugees who also refuse the idea of an evacuation. Four people died. This is the second time the shelter has been hit.
You have 29.96% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.