Russian forces have launched new attacks on cities in eastern Ukraine, with the city of Severodonetsk increasingly threatened by a total encirclement.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kirill Budanov, said the delay in the arrival of Western weapons on the front line had led to “a catastrophic shortage of heavy weapons in Kyiv”.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Haidai said the area was already without gas supplies and had limited water and electricity since the last gas supply station was hit.
Haidai added that Russian forces were trying to “completely destroy” the city of Severodonetsk in an attempt to take over the Donbas region, near the border with Russia.
“They are just wiping Severodonetsk off the face of the earth,” Haidai told his Telegram channel.
“Currently, with the support of artillery, the Russian occupiers are attacking Severodonetsk,” Haidai added.
President Vladimir Zelensky said the situation in Donbass was “extremely difficult”, with the Russian army using all its strength. Footage from recent days in frontline areas posted on social media depicts a constant burst of artillery and rocket fire raining down key roads and Ukrainian positions.
Recent videos posted by AFP photographer Aris Messinis in Donbass show shells hitting a road near the eastern part of the country and the constant sound of incoming artillery fire.
After failing to capture Kyiv or Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, Russia is trying to seize the other two separatist-claimed provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk and capture Ukrainian forces in the pockets of the main eastern front.
In the easternmost part of Ukraine’s Donbass pocket, the city of Severodonetsk on the east bank of the Seversky Donets River and its twin, Lisichansk, on the west bank, have become a major battlefield as Russian forces advance from three directions to surround them.
The assessment of Russian operations by Western analysts suggests that instead of encircling Ukrainian forces with a large and comprehensive effort, Russia is trying to divide Ukraine’s territory into several small encirclements with the same effect.
The US-based Institute for War Studies-based think tank said in a May 24 update that Russian troops were “instead trying to secure smaller encirclements and focus on Severodonetsk,” adding that Ukrainian forces were also likely to carry out a controlled withdrawal. southwest of the town of Popasna to protect Ukrainian supply lines against Russian attacks.
Russia appears to have deployed higher-quality troops than the so-called Shunting Task Force to lead the operation around Siverdonesk, with some reports suggesting that Russian planes make several hundred flights a day in support of the attack.
Russian forces also appear to be benefiting from better supply lines in the Luhansk region, with Ukrainian authorities calling for more Western heavy weapons – including rocket-propelled grenade launchers – for their more armed defenders.
In the town of Slavyansk west of Donbass, many residents took advantage of what Ukraine said was an interruption of the Russian attack to leave. “My house was bombed, I have nothing,” said Vera Safronova, who was put in a car among the evacuees.
Along with the eastern region of Donbass, Moscow is also targeting southern Ukraine and has blocked ships that typically export Ukrainian grain and sunflower oil across the Black Sea, raising world prices and threatening lives.
Russia, which blamed Ukraine and the West for the food crisis, said it was ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for food carriers to leave Ukraine, but said Western sanctions would have to be lifted in return.
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Three months after the invasion, Russia still has only limited gains on its worst military losses in decades, while much of Ukraine has been devastated as Moscow has stepped up artillery strikes to make up for its slow progress.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said he was deliberately making slow progress in what he called his “special operation” to avoid civilian casualties, Zelensky said, dismissed as “absolutely unrealistic”.
“We will continue the special military operation until all the goals have been achieved,” Shoigu told the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military union of former Soviet states. Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev also said Moscow’s offensive would last as long as necessary.
“We are in no hurry to meet the deadlines,” he said.
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