A withdrawal could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of fully capturing the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. His troops have gained ground in the two regions known as Donbas, while reducing some towns to wasteland.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops had entered Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine, after trying to trap Ukrainian forces for several days. Gaidai said 90% of buildings in the city were damaged.
“The Russians will not be able to capture the Luhansk region in the next few days, as analysts predicted,” Gaidai said on Telegram, referring to Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, across the border. Siverskiy Donets river.
“We will have sufficient strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, it is possible that, in order not to be surrounded, we will have to retreat.”
Moscow’s separatist proxies said they now controlled Lyman, a rail hub west of Sievierodonetsk. Ukraine said Russia had captured most of Lyman but its forces were blocking an advance towards Sloviansk, a town half an hour’s drive further southwest.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleskiy Arestovych said overnight that Lyman’s well-organized attack showed the Moscow army, which was pushed back from the capital kyiv in March, was improving its tactics and operations.
A HIGH COST
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Bloomberg UK that Putin “at great cost to himself and to the Russian military, continues to chip away at Donbas”.
Russian troops advanced after breaking through Ukrainian lines last week in the town of Popasna, south of Sievierodonetsk. Russian ground forces have now captured several villages northwest of Popasna, Britain’s defense minister said.
Reached by Reuters reporters in Russian-held territory on Thursday, Popasna lay in ruins. The bloated body of a dead man in combat uniform could be seen lying in a yard.
Natalia Kovalenko had left the cellar where she was sheltering to live in the rubble of her apartment, the windows and balcony of which had been blown up. According to her, a shell hit the outer courtyard, killing two people and injuring eight.
“I just have to fix the window somehow. The wind is still bad,” she said. “We are tired of being so afraid.”
Russia’s gains in the east follow a Ukrainian counter-offensive that pushed back Moscow forces from Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, in May. But Ukrainian forces were unable to attack Russian supply lines to the Donbas.
Russian forces shelled parts of Kharkiv on Thursday for the first time in several days. Local authorities said nine people were killed. The Kremlin denies targeting civilians.
In the south, where Moscow has seized much of the territory since the February 24 invasion, including the strategic port of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials believe Russia is aiming to impose a permanent regime.
Ukraine’s military said Russia was shipping military equipment from Russia’s annexed Crimea to build defenses against any Ukrainian counterattacks and was mining the banks of a reservoir behind a dam on the Dnipro River that separates forces.
FIGHT TO LEAVE
In the Kherson region, north of Crime, Russian forces are fortifying their defenses and bombing Ukrainian-controlled areas daily, the region’s Ukrainian governor, Hennadiy Laguta, told a press briefing.
He added that the humanitarian situation was critical in some areas and people were finding it almost impossible to leave the occupied territory, except for a convoy of 200 cars which left on Wednesday.
On the diplomatic front, European Union officials said a deal could be reached by Sunday to ban shipments of Russian oil by sea, which make up around 75% of the bloc’s supply, but not by sea. pipeline, a compromise to reach Hungary and unblock new sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed the EU for dithering on the Russian energy ban, saying the bloc was funding Moscow’s war effort and that any delay “just means more Ukrainians will be killed”.
In a phone call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Putin maintained his position that a global food crisis caused by the conflict can only be resolved if the West lifts its sanctions.
Nehammer, who visited Russia in April, said Putin said he was ready to discuss a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, but added: “Whether he is really ready to negotiate is a complex question.”
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports has halted grain shipments, pushing up world prices, with both countries being major grain exporters. Russia accuses Ukraine of mining ports and Ukraine has called the Russian position “blackmail”.
Russia, which calls its invasion a “special military operation”, launched its assault in part to ensure that Ukraine did not join the US-led NATO military alliance.
But the war has prompted Sweden and Finland, which were both neutral throughout the Cold War, to seek to join NATO in one of the most significant shifts in European security in decades.
Applications from the Nordic countries have faced opposition from NATO member Turkey, which claims they are harboring people linked to a militant group it considers a terrorist organisation. Swedish and Finnish diplomats met in Turkey on Wednesday to try to resolve their differences.
“It’s not an easy process,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Friday, adding that Sweden and Finland must take “difficult” steps to win Ankara’s support. “Negotiations will continue. But a date does not seem very close.”