Ukraine announced on Monday that it had lost control of Metolkine, a village on the outskirts of Severodonetsk in the east of the country, a key Donbass city that Russian forces have been trying to take full control of for weeks.
“Unfortunately, we no longer control Metolkin,” Lugansk region governor Sergei Gaidai said in a statement published on social media.
Russia’s capture of the village, which had a population of about 1,000 before the war, is the latest Russian push in and around Severodonetsk, where the Moscow army has met stiff Ukrainian resistance.
Russian troops have slowly advanced into the Donbass region, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, where they have concentrated their military efforts after being forced out of areas around the capital early in their invasion of Ukraine in February.
The Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians are believed to live, is “constantly” bombed by Russian forces, according to Serguiï Gaïdaï.
Meanwhile, Severodonetsk Mayor Olexander Stryuk said on Ukrainian television on Monday that the Moscow army controls most of the city’s residential areas.
“If we talk about the whole city, even more than a third is controlled by our armed forces. The Russians control the rest,” he said.
“There is street fighting 24 hours a day,” he added, adding that Ukrainian troops are regularly bombed.
Evacuations of civilians from Severodonetsk have been impossible for several days after a final bridge to the neighboring city of Lysytchansk was destroyed.