Russian advances in Donbass Ukraine: siege in Luhansk region frustrated
04/20/2022, 16:19
Experts suspect that Moscow wants to encircle the Ukrainian armed forces in Donbass. The leadership in Kiev now reports that the attack on Sloviansk has been repulsed. Apparently, the capture of the city was intended to cut off Ukrainian units in the Luhansk region.
According to an aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian troops stopped Russian troops from advancing towards the city of Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Russian units came from the city of Izyum, in the northeast of the Kharkov region, councilor Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video speech. “They’ve concentrated their forces there. They’re trying to advance there, but so far they’re not succeeding.”
In the morning, the Ukrainian general staff reported Russia’s unsuccessful attempts to invade the cities of Rubishne and Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk region east of Sloviansk. According to the situation report, 130 wounded enemy soldiers were taken to the local hospital in Nowoaydar after the fighting.
In addition, the Ukrainian military command reported intense fighting in the cities of Marjinka, Popasna, Torske, Selena Dolyna and Kreminna. Pro-Russian separatists had previously announced that they had taken control of Kreminna. Reports cannot be independently verified.
Just yesterday, presidential adviser Arestovych announced that the purpose of the Russian advance into the Luhansk region was to isolate Ukrainian troops in Rubishne and Sieverodonetsk. To achieve this, 25,000 Russian soldiers would move from Izyum to the neighboring cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. In his view, Russian artillery attacks near the city of Mykolayiv, in southern Ukraine, and the metropolis of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, are primarily aimed at containing Ukrainian troops.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on neighboring Ukraine. At first, Russian troops acted as pincers from the north, south and east. Meanwhile, Russian units withdrew from the area around Kiev to focus their combat operations in eastern Ukraine.
This second phase of the war, called “military special operations” in Russia, began earlier this week, according to the Kiev government. Military experts suspect that Russian troops want to encircle Ukrainian forces in Donbass with a pincer movement.