A Ukrainian artillery gunner adjusted his sights after firing on Russian soldiers a few miles near the village of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine. FINBARR O’REILLY / The New York Times News Service
Ukrainian forces lingered in the eastern industrial city of Severodonetsk on Tuesday, resisting a comprehensive assault on Russia to seize a bombed-out wasteland that Moscow has set as its main target of its invasion.
Both sides said Russian forces now control between a third and a half of the city. Proponents of the Russian separatists have admitted that taking the city takes longer than expected, despite one of the biggest ground attacks of the war.
Russia, in response to Western sanctions following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, expanded its gas restrictions on Europe on Tuesday, with Gazprom saying it would cut supplies to several “unfriendly” countries that have refused to accept Moscow’s payment scheme. in rubles for gas.
EU leaders have agreed to cut Russian oil imports by 90 per cent overnight by the end of the year, the bloc’s most difficult response to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the move, but criticized what he called an “unacceptable” delay.
“When more than 50 days have passed between the fifth and sixth packages of sanctions, the situation is not acceptable to us,” Zelenski said, speaking with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova in Kyiv.
Western military analysts say Moscow has drained manpower and firepower from other parts of the front to focus on Severodonetsk, hoping a massive offensive will achieve one of its stated goals of securing the surrounding Luhansk province. of the separatists.
“We can already say that one third of Severodonetsk is already under our control,” said Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS.
Fighting raged in the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as fast as expected, he said, saying pro-Moscow forces wanted to “maintain the city’s infrastructure” and were moving slowly due to caution around chemical plants.
A Russian air strike has hit a tank with nitric acid, Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai said on Tuesday. In a publication in the Telegram application, he urged locals not to leave bomb shelters because of the risk of toxic fumes.
In an evening briefing on Facebook, Ukraine’s military command said Russian forces were “trying to take full control of Severodonetsk” and to surround Ukrainian units fighting there.
“Unfortunately, the city is divided in half. But at the same time, the city is still defending itself. It is still Ukrainian, “said city chief Alexander Struck, advising those still trapped to stay in basements.
Ukraine says Russia has destroyed all of the city’s critical infrastructure with relentless bombing, followed by wave after wave of massive ground attacks involving huge numbers of victims.
MURAT YUKSELIR / GLOSS AND POST, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS
Thousands remain trapped. Russian forces were advancing toward the city center, but slowly, District Governor Gaidai said.
Gaidai said there seemed to be no risk of Ukrainian forces being surrounded, although they could eventually be forced to withdraw across the Seversky Donets River to Lisichansk, the twin city on the opposite bank.
Struck, head of the city administration, said evacuating civilians was no longer possible.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the long-serving Norwegian Refugee Council’s aid agency in Severodonetsk, said he was “horrified” by its destruction.
“We fear that up to 12,000 civilians will be affected by crossfire in the city without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity,” he said. “The almost constant bombing is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements, with only a few valuable opportunities for those trying to escape.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, there were few reports of major changes. In the east, Ukraine says Moscow is trying to attack other areas on the main front, regrouping to put pressure on the city of Slavyansk. In the south, Ukraine has claimed in recent days that it has repulsed Russian forces to the border of the Russian-held province of Kherson.
After failing to take Kyiv and expelled from northern Ukraine, victory in Severodonetsk and beyond the Lisichansk River will bring full control of Luhansk, one of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
“(President Vladimir) Putin is now throwing people and ammunition” against Severodonetsk, “as if taking them would win the war for the Kremlin. He’s wrong, “wrote the Washington-based Institute for War Studies this week.
The EU has said it will ban the import of Russian oil by sea. Authorities said it would stop two-thirds of oil exports to Europe initially and 90 percent by the end of this year, as Germany and Poland are also gradually halting imports via the pipeline.
But Hungary, which relies on Russian oil through a huge Soviet-era pipeline, has secured an exception.
Putin launched his “special operation” in February to disarm and “denationalize” Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western allies call this an unfounded pretext for a war of conquest.
Ukraine accuses Moscow of large-scale war crimes, comparing cities and killing and raping civilians. Russia denies the allegations.
In the second war crimes trial, which will take place in Ukraine, two Russian soldiers were detained on Tuesday for 11-1 / 2 years after pleading guilty to shelling civilian targets. Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said Kyiv had identified more than 600 Russian war crimes suspects and had launched a prosecution of about 80.
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