Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russia said on Tuesday it had occupied large parts of eastern Ukraine after relentless, weekly shelling and the recent deployment of more troops.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow forces had “liberated” 97% of the Luhansk region.
Russia seems inclined to take over the entire eastern part of Ukraine’s Donbass, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This goal seems to be her most immediate ambition in Ukraine.
But while the Kremlin’s forces have superior firepower, Ukraine’s defenders – among them the country’s best-trained forces – have been strengthened and shown their ability to counterattack.
Shoigu claims that Russian forces have taken over the residential neighborhoods of Severodonetsk and are struggling to take control of an industrial zone on the outskirts and nearby cities.
Sieverodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has recently been at the center of the Russian offensive. Severodonetsk and nearby Lisichansk are the only two cities in the Donbass that have resisted the Russian invasion, aided by local pro-Kremlin forces.
Shoigu added that Russian troops were pushing for an offensive against the city of Popasna, noting that they had captured Liman and Svyatohirsk and 15 other cities in the region.
Popasna is a city with a pre-war population of 20,000, located about 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles) south of Severodonetsk.
A Ukrainian official said on Tuesday that Moscow had reinforcements in eastern Ukraine such as Russian artillery fire aimed at smashing Ukraine’s defenses.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Haidai has acknowledged that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of Severodonetsk, one of two cities in the Luhansk region, still in Ukrainian hands.
“The toughest street battles continue with varying degrees of success,” Haidai told the Associated Press. “The situation is constantly changing, but the Ukrainians are repelling the attacks.
However, Moscow’s strategy failed many times after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, including a failed attempt to take Kyiv, the capital.
Moscow forces also maintained artillery shelling of Lisichansk, a city near Severodonetsk that is almost entirely controlled by Russian troops.
Haidai said Russian troops shelled a local market, school and college building, destroying the latter. Three wounded were sent to hospitals in other parts of Ukraine, he said.
“Total destruction of the city is underway, Russian shelling has intensified significantly in the last 24 hours. “The Russians are using tactics on the scorched earth,” Haidai said.
In all, Ukrainian forces have repulsed 10 Russian attacks in the past 24 hours, according to Haidai. His report could not be verified independently.
Ukraine receives weapons and ammunition from the West to help repel ruthless Russian attacks. This aid has become a target for Russian artillery and fighter jets.
Russia said on Tuesday that its forces had destroyed two artillery systems provided by the United States and a howitzer supplied by Norway.
Major General Igor Konashenkov said Russian artillery shelling destroyed other Ukrainian equipment in the eastern part of the country, while the Russian air force struck Ukrainian troops and concentrations of equipment and artillery positions.
Konashenkov’s allegations could not be confirmed independently.
Meanwhile, autopsies of dozens of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal steel plant were planned in Kyiv.
The bodies were returned to Ukraine by the Russian occupiers at a fortress-like plant in the ruined city of Mariupol, where their latest position has become a symbol of resistance to Moscow’s invasion.
The Azov Regiment was among the Ukrainian units that defended the steel plant for nearly three months before surrendering in May under ruthless Russian attacks from land, sea and air.
It was not clear how many bodies could remain in the plant.
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David Keaton and Alexander Stashevsky in Kyiv; Juras Karmanau in Lviv; Andrea Rosa in Bakhmut; and Sylvie Corbett in Colville-sur-Mer, France, contributed to this story.
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Follow the coverage of the AP for the war in Ukraine
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