Ukraine said on Friday that its forces may have to withdraw from their last pocket of resistance in Luhansk to avoid being captured by Russian troops, who are pushing for an offensive in the east that has displaced the momentum of the three-month war.
Withdrawal could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of a full takeover of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions. His troops captured positions in the two areas known as Donbass as they blew up some desert cities.
Read more: Russian separatists claim control of a key city in Ukraine’s Donbass
Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai said Russian troops had entered Severodonetsk, the largest city in the Donbass still held by Ukraine, after days of trying to capture Ukrainian forces there. Gaidai said 90% of the city’s buildings were damaged.
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“The Russians will not be able to take over the Luhansk region in the coming days, as analysts have predicted,” Gaidai told the Telegram, referring to Severodonetsk and its sister city of Lisichansk beyond the Seversky Donets River.
“We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, in order not to be surrounded, we may have to give way. “
Moscow’s separatists have said they now control the Lyman, a railway center west of Severodonetsk. Ukraine has said Russia has taken most of the Lyman, but its forces are blocking an offensive on Slavyansk, a city half an hour’s drive southwest.
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President Vladimir Zelensky said Ukraine was defending its land “as far as our current defense resources allow.” The Ukrainian military said it had repulsed eight attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk on Friday, destroying tanks and armored vehicles.
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“If the occupiers think that Lyman and Severodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbass will be Ukrainian, “Zelensky said in an evening address.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Bloomberg UK that Putin “at a great cost to himself and the Russian military, continues to chew the ground in Donbass.”
Russian troops came after breaking through Ukrainian lines last week in the town of Popasna, south of Severodonetsk. Russian ground forces have taken over several villages northwest of Popasna, the British Ministry of Defense said.
Reached by Reuters reporters in Russian-held territory on Thursday, Popasna was in ruins. The swollen body of a dead man in a battle uniform could be seen in the courtyard.
Natalia Kovalenko had left the basement where she had taken refuge to live in the ruins of her apartment, and her windows and balcony had exploded. She said a shell hit the yard outside, killing two and injuring eight.
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“I just have to fix the window somehow. The wind is still bad, “she said. “We’re tired of being so scared.”
Russia’s eastern successes were followed by a Ukrainian counteroffensive that repulsed Moscow’s forces from Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, in May. However, Ukrainian forces failed to attack Russian supply lines in Donbass.
Russian forces shelled parts of Kharkiv on Thursday for the first time in days. Local authorities said nine people had died. The Kremlin denies attacking civilians.
In the south, where Moscow has taken over part of the territory since the February 24 invasion, including the strategic port of Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities believe Russia aims to impose permanent rule.
The Ukrainian military has said Russia is supplying military equipment from Russia’s annexed Crimea to build a defense against any counterattack, and is copying the banks of a reservoir behind a Dnieper dam that separates forces.
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In the Kherson region, north of Crimea, Russian forces have strengthened their defenses and shelled Ukrainian-controlled areas on a daily basis, Ukraine’s regional governor Gennady Laguta told a news briefing.
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He said the humanitarian situation was critical in some areas and people found it almost impossible to leave the occupied territory, with the exception of a convoy of 200 cars that left on Wednesday.
At the diplomatic front, EU officials said a deal could be reached by Sunday to ban Russian oil supplies by sea, which accounts for about 75% of the bloc’s supplies but not by pipeline, a compromise to win Hungary and unblock new sanctions. Read the whole story
Zelensky criticized the EU for hesitating over a ban on Russian energy, saying the bloc was funding Moscow’s military efforts and that the delay “simply means more Ukrainians will be killed”.
Read more: Zelensky orders Ukraine to end visa-free regime for Russians: “Important and vital”
In a telephone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer, Putin adhered to his line that the global food crisis caused by the conflict could only be resolved if the West lifted sanctions.
Nehamer, who visited Russia in April, said Putin had expressed readiness to discuss the exchange of prisoners with Ukraine, but said: “If he is really ready to negotiate, it is a difficult question.”
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports has halted grain supplies, raising world prices, with the two countries being major grain exporters. Russia accuses Ukraine of mining ports, and Ukraine has described Russia’s position as “blackmail.”
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Russia, which calls its invasion a “special military operation”, launched its attack in part to ensure that Ukraine does not join the US-led NATO military alliance.
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But the war prompted Sweden and Finland, both neutral during the Cold War, to apply to join NATO in one of the most significant changes in European security in decades.
The Scandinavian countries’ candidacies have been thwarted by opposition from NATO member Turkey, which claims to be sheltering people linked to an armed group it considers a terrorist organization. Swedish and Finnish diplomats met in Turkey on Wednesday to try to bridge their differences.
“This is not an easy process,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Friday, adding that Sweden and Finland must take “difficult” steps to gain Ankara’s support.
(Report by Natalia Zinets, Conor Humphreys and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, Vitaly Hnidi in Kharkov and Reuters journalists in Popasna; Written by Peter Graf, Catherine Evans and Rami Ayub; Edited by Philippa Fletcher, Edmund Blair and Grant)
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