Russian forces on Saturday took full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, confirming the biggest setback on the Kyiv battlefield for more than a month, after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting in the war.
The fall of Severodonetsk, once home to more than 100,000 people, now a wasteland, was Russia’s biggest victory since the capture of the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in eastern Ukraine after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had only yielded slow gains.
Now Russia will hope to continue and take more ground on the opposite bank, while Ukraine hopes the price Moscow paid to capture the ruins of the small town will leave Russian forces vulnerable to a counterattack.
The Independence Monument overlooking Kyiv’s Maidan Square is seen on Saturday, four months after the day Russian forces crossed Ukraine’s borders and began a powerful invasion. (Nariman El-Mofty / The Associated Press)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised in a video address that Ukraine would regain the cities it lost, including Severodonetsk. But acknowledging the emotional weight of the war, he said “we have no idea how long it will last, how many more times, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory on the horizon.”
Severodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told national television that the city was “now under full Russian occupation.”
“They’re trying to establish their own order; as far as I know, they’ve appointed some kind of commander.”
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, told Reuters that Ukraine was carrying out “a tactical regrouping” by withdrawing its forces from Severodonetsk.
“Russia is using the tactic … that it used in Mariupol: to wipe the city off the face of the earth,” Budanov said. “Given the conditions, keeping the defense in ruins and open fields is no longer possible. So Ukrainian forces are marching to higher ground to continue defense operations.”
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Russia’s Defense Ministry said that “as a result of successful offensive operations” Russian forces had established full control over Severodonetsk and the nearby city of Borivske.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a representative of pro-Russian separatist fighters as saying that Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lysychansk and there were fighting in urban areas.
When Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II entered its fifth month, Russian missiles also rained down in the west, north and south of the country.
At least three people were killed and others may have been buried in rubble in the town of Sarny, about 300 kilometers west of Kyiv, after rockets hit a car wash and a car repair facility, said the head of the local regional military administration.
G7 leaders are expected to demonstrate their long-term support in Ukraine and discuss how to tighten the screws in Russia at a three-day summit in Germany that will begin on Sunday. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the leaders will agree to a ban on imports of new gold from Russia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will take part, said he feared Ukraine could face pressure to accept a peace deal and that the consequences Putin would achieve in Ukraine would be dangerous to international security.
Lysychansk “was a horror,” the evacuee says
In the Ukrainian-controlled city of Pokrovsk in Donbas, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair in Lysychansk, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from the front-line areas.
“Lysychansk, it was a horror, last week. Yesterday we couldn’t stand it any longer,” he said. “I already told my husband that if I die, please bury me behind the house.”
A neighbor in Donetsk, Ukraine, is carrying a cat in a pet carrier and various belongings as she leaves a damaged home on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the border on February 24, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also fueled an energy and food crisis that is shaking the world economy.
Since Russian forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March, it has focused on the Donbas, an eastern region formed by the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian strongholds in Luhansk.
View of a damaged building in Donetsk, Ukraine, as seen on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The Russians have crossed the river heavily in recent days and have been advancing towards Lysychansk, threatening to encircle the Ukrainians in the area.
The capture of Severodonetsk will likely be seen by Russia as a claim to its shift from its first failed attempt at “lightning war” to a relentless and forceful offensive with massive artillery in the east.
Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has supported the uprisings since 2014, are independent countries. It demands that Ukraine cede the entire territory of the two provinces to separatist administrations.
Ukrainian officials had never held high hopes of keeping Severodonetsk indefinitely, but hoped to charge a price high enough to exhaust the Russian army.
Missile attacks across the country
Ukraine’s top general, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote in the Telegram application on Saturday that US-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, were now deployed and hitting targets in areas occupied by Russia. of Ukraine.
Asked about a possible counterattack in the south, Budanov said Ukraine should start seeing results “from August”.
Russian missiles also hit other places during the night. “48 cruise missiles. At night. Across Ukraine,” Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine and cause panic.”
Ukrainian soldiers are seen on Saturday in Kostantynivka, in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, four months after the start of their neighbor’s widespread Russian invasion. (Marko Djurica / Reuters)
The governor of the Lviv region of western Ukraine said six missiles were fired from the Black Sea at a base near the border with Poland. Four hit the target, but two were destroyed.
The war has had a major impact on the global economy and European security agreements, driving up gas, oil and food prices, pushing the EU to reduce its heavy dependence on Russian energy and made that Finland and Sweden seek NATO membership.
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