Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces attempted to engulf the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the east Luhansk region and increased their momentum after taking full control of the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk and the chemical plant on Saturday, in where hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians were, had entrenched themselves.
Russia has also fired dozens of missiles at several areas across the country, far from the center of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired from Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus for the first time, Ukraine’s air command said.
The bombing preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, at which Putin announced Russia plans to supply Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control Sievierodonetsk and surrounding villages. He said the Ukrainian armed forces’ attempt to turn the Azot plant into a “stubborn center of resistance” had been thwarted.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Lugansk province, said on Friday that Ukrainian troops were withdrawing from Sieverodonetsk after weeks of bombing and house-to-house fighting. He confirmed on Saturday that the city had fallen to Russian and Separatist fighters who were now attempting to blockade Lysychansk from the south. The city is across the river west of Sievierodonetsk.
The capture of Lysychansk would give Russian forces control of every major settlement in the province, a significant step towards Russia’s goal of conquering all of Donbass. The Russians and separatists control about half of Donetsk, the second province in Donbass.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted a spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying that Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lysychansk and that fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. There was no immediate comment on the allegation from the Ukrainian side.
Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk were the focus of a Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of Donbass and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it – the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces.
The Russian bombardment reduced most of Sievierodonetsk to rubble and reduced its population from 100,000 to 10,000. The last remaining Ukrainian troops were holed up in underground bunkers at the huge Azot chemical plant along with hundreds of civilians. A separatist representative, Ivan Filiponenko, said earlier Saturday that his troops evacuated 800 civilians from the facility during the night, Interfax reported.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said some of the troops were on their way to Lysychansk. But Russian moves to cut off Lysychansk will bring little rest to these retreating troops.
About 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west, four Russian cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea hit a “military object” in Yaroviv, Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. He gave no further details about the target, but Yaroviv has a sizeable military base that is used to train fighters, including foreigners who have volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
Russian missiles hit the Yarowi base in March, killing 35 people. The Lviv region, although far from the front lines, came under fire at various points in the war as the Russian military worked to destroy fuel depots.
About 30 Russian rockets were fired at the Zhytomyr region of central Ukraine on Saturday morning, killing a Ukrainian soldier, regional governor Vitaliy Buchenko said. He said all strikes were aimed at military targets.
In the northwest, two rockets hit a gas station and a car repair center in Sarny, killing three people and wounding four, Rivne regional governor Vitaliy Koval said. He posted a picture of the destruction. Sarny is about 50 kilometers south of the border with Belarus.
In southern Ukraine along the Black Sea coast, nine missiles fired from Crimea hit the port city of Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian military said.
In the north, about 20 rockets were fired from Belarus into the Chernihiv region, the Ukrainian military said.
Ukrainian military intelligence said the Russian bombers’ first use of Belarusian airspace for Saturday’s attack was “directly related to attempts by the Kremlin to drag Belarus into the war.”
Belarus is home to Russian military units and was used as a staging area before Russia invaded Ukraine, but its own troops never crossed the border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his late night video address that as a war that Moscow expected to last five days entered its fifth month, Russia “felt compelled to put on such a rocket show.”
He said the war is at a difficult stage “when we know that the enemy will not succeed, when we understand that we can defend our country, but we do not know how long it will take, how many more attacks , Losses and There will still be efforts before we can see that victory is already on the horizon.”
During his meeting in St. Petersburg with Lukashenko, Putin told him that the Iskander-M missile systems would arrive in the coming months. He noted that they can fire either ballistic or cruise missiles and carry both nuclear and conventional warheads. Russia fired several Iskander missiles at Ukraine during the war.
After a botched attempt to take Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in the initial stages of the invasion that began on February 24, Russian forces have shifted their focus to the Donbass, where Ukrainian forces have been battling Moscow-backed separatists since 2014 .
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, on Friday called the withdrawal of Ukrainians from Sieverodonetsk a “tactical step backwards” to consolidate the armed forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. The move will increase Ukraine’s efforts to pin down Russian forces in a small area, the official said.
Following repeated requests from Ukraine to its Western allies for heavier weapons to counter Russia’s firepower lead, four American medium-range rocket launchers arrived this week, with four more on the way.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released a video on Saturday showing the first deployment of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in Ukraine. The video gave no location or indication of the targets. The missiles can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
The senior US defense official said on Friday that other Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the HIMARS and are expected to return with weapons to their country in mid-July. In addition, 18 US coast and river patrol boats are to be deployed.
The official said there was no evidence that Russia intercepted weapons from the US and other nations to Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly threatened strikes or actually claimed to have hit such supplies.
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