Officials in eastern Ukraine say the Russian shelling of Severodonetsk has been so intense that it has not been possible to estimate the casualties and damage as Moscow approaches the largest city still held by Ukraine in Donbass.
“The situation is extremely escalating,” Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Haidai said on Sunday. Witnesses said the city was bombed “200 times an hour” as Russian forces tried to cut off reinforcements and surround its remaining defenders.
Ukrainian authorities described conditions in Severodonetsk as reminiscent of Mariupol, the southern port city that fell on May 20th after nearly three months of relentless attack.
Intensified fighting ensued when Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Ukrainian troops on the front line in the northeastern Kharkiv region, his first official appearance outside the Kyiv region since the start of the war. “You are risking your life for all of us and for our country,” Zelenski told troops there.
The battle for Severodonetsk, located on the east bank of the Seversky Donets River, about 90 miles south of Russia’s border, is in the spotlight as Russia gradually but steadily conquers industrial Donbass, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
After failing to take the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the war, Russia is seeking to consolidate its control over Donbass, much of which is already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. He concentrated enormous firepower on a small area – unlike the earlier phase of the conflict, when its forces were often poorly distributed – smashing cities with artillery and air strikes.
Regional officials said Russian forces were storming Severodonetsk and that fighting was taking place street by street, cutting off power and mobile phones.
Severodonetsk Mayor Alexander Struck said residents who remain in the city, which had a pre-war population of about 100,000, risk being exposed to shelling when they leave their homes to access water. Struck estimated that 1,500 civilians had already died either from Russian attacks or from a lack of drugs and diseases that could not be cured.
Russia has also stepped up efforts to take over the neighboring city of Lisichansk, where Haidai said a Russian shell fell on a residential building over the weekend, killing a child.
Zelensky’s office posted a video in the Telegram showing him wearing a bulletproof vest and showing destroyed buildings in and around Kharkov, where Russian forces have withdrawn in recent weeks.
Last Thursday, Russian artillery struck the city of Kharkov for the first time in two weeks, just as life in Ukraine’s second city began to return to normal after Moscow troops were driven out of surrounding towns and villages. At least nine people were killed and 17 were injured in attacks in the northern part of the city.
Zelenski expressed hope that his allies would provide much-needed weapons, and said he expected “good news” in the coming days.
A few days ago, the United States and its allies said they would provide Ukraine with increasingly sophisticated weapons, including volley-launched missile systems, which Kyiv is calling for. Ukraine has said it has begun receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and US self-propelled howitzers.
Presidential Adviser Mikhail Podoliak reiterated his call for long-range US-made rocket fire. U.S. officials say such systems are being actively considered and a solution is possible in the coming days.
“It’s hard to fight when you’re attacked from 70 kilometers and you have nothing to fight back,” Podoliak wrote on Twitter. “We need effective weapons.”
Zelensky, meanwhile, said in a television interview that he believes Russia will agree to negotiations if Ukraine manages to regain all the territory it lost after the invasion.
Zelensky rejected the idea of using force to regain all the land Ukraine has lost to Russia since 2014, which includes the southern Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow that year.
“I do not believe that we can rebuild our entire territory with military means. “If we decide to go down this path, we will lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
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