Ukrainian tanks and several Grad multiple missile systems were seen heading towards Toshkivka, Ukraine on Sunday. Credit: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine — Russian forces on Sunday carried out an attack on a key Ukrainian defense position near two strategically important eastern cities, Ukrainian military officials said, bringing them a small step closer to encircling thousands of Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian forces rushed with reinforcements to the front positions around Toshkivka, a small town south-east of the Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk metropolitan area. The Russians “succeeded” but were eventually held back, a Ukrainian official said, but the battle highlighted Ukraine’s faltering defense of two of the last cities in the Donbass region’s Luhansk province not yet under Russian control .
If Moscow’s forces manage to cut off Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, it could pin thousands of Ukrainian fighters defending the cities, bringing Moscow a hard-fought military victory and bringing its forces closer to President Vladimir V Putin’s goal of covering all of eastern Donbass Ukraine conquer region.
Volunteers urged residents of Lysychansk, Ukraine, to evacuate Sunday. Credit: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Ukrainian main battle tanks and several multiple-launch Grad missile systems were sighted towards Toshkivka and other parts of the front line Sunday afternoon, smoke billowing from their chassis and treads billowing up the roads in the rear, likely to push back Russian forces there.
A crew member smiled and nodded when asked if his tank was heading towards Ukrainian defenses in that area.
While Russian troops switched to surround both cities after weeks of street fighting and artillery duels, Ukrainian troops have retreated and only hold a small part of Sievierodonetsk. These include a chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians are sheltering, which has come under a crushing Russian bombardment in recent days, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Sunday.
Fighting continues elsewhere in the region. In the south-west, Ukrainian military officials said Sunday their troops successfully repelled an offensive on the eastern outskirts of Berestov. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military added that Russia was planning another attack in Sloviansk, some 50 miles directly west of Sievierodonetsk.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on Toshkivka, but said earlier Sunday that its forces had captured Metolkine, a town east of Sievierodonetsk. Many Ukrainian militants surrendered there, Russia’s state news agency Tass said, although the claims could not be independently verified.
Smoke from a fire caused by an artillery attack on a Ukrainian checkpoint in Lysychansk, Ukraine, on Sunday. Credit: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Toshkivka served as an important part of a defensive wall in what has been dubbed the Sievierodonetsk Pocket. Located in the Donbass region — an area of rolling plains, farmland and coal-mining towns where Moscow has deployed the bulk of its military might in recent months — the pocket is about three-quarters encircled by Russian forces. This has left only a narrow gap to the west for Ukrainian troops to come and go, using village roads that are often attacked by Russian artillery fire.
And Russian troops are sneaking up to close the gap.
If Ukrainian forces are unable to reinforce the front line at Toshkivka, it means that Russian forces have tightened the noose from the south, reducing the area for Ukrainian troops inside the pocket. It would also allow Russian forces to threaten the few remaining Ukrainian supply routes to Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that the future of much of eastern Ukraine will be decided in the battle over these two cities.
Ukraine’s decision to stand up to street fighting in Sieverodonetsk was a gamble from the start. His strategy was to fight at close quarters in the city, where Russia cannot use its massive artillery advantage.
But the soldiers in the city and those supporting them in the neighboring town of Lysychansk, on the west bank of the Siversky Donets River, were in daily danger of being surrounded.
Residents of Lysychansk wait in an evacuation vehicle on Sunday. Credit: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Russian artillery lines have been bombarding the roads, bridges and Ukrainian positions with thousands of shells every day, Ukrainian troops estimate.
As risky as Ukraine’s strategy is, it has successfully tied down Russian forces and inflicted casualties, said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister, in an interview on Sunday.
“Right now, the main goal is to use the opportunity we have to completely exhaust the Russians in Donbass,” he said.
Also, he added, it was better to fight now than to retreat and fight elsewhere further west later.
“If we moved, they would move,” Mr. Zagorodnyuk said. “We’d have to meet her somewhere. It’s not that Putin only wanted Sievierodonetsk. They will keep going until stopped.”
—Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Natalia Yermak, and Andrew E. Kramer