Kyiv, Ukraine –
Russian forces were trying to engulf the last remaining Ukrainian fortress in the eastern Luhansk region, pushing their momentum after taking full control Saturday of the charred ruins of Severodonetsk and the chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were hiding.
Russia has also fired dozens of missiles at several areas in the country, far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired by Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers, deployed for the first time by Belarus, Ukraine’s air command said.
The bombing preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, during which Putin announced that Russia planned to supply the Iskander-M missile system to Belarus.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control Severodonetsk and surrounding villages. He said attempts by Ukrainian forces to turn the Nitrogen plant into a “stubborn center of resistance” had been thwarted.
Sergei Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said on Friday that Ukrainian troops were withdrawing from Severodonetsk after weeks of house-to-house bombing and fighting. He confirmed on Saturday that the city had fallen into the hands of Russian and separatist fighters, who he said were now trying to block Lisichansk from the south. The city is located on the other side of the river, west of Severodonetsk.
The capture of Lisichansk would give Russian forces control of every major settlement in the province, a significant step toward Russia’s goal of capturing the entire Donbass. The Russians and separatists control about half of Donetsk, the second province in Donbass.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying that Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lisichansk and that the fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. There was no immediate comment on the statement from the Ukrainian side.
Lisichansk and Severodonetsk were the focal point of a Russian offensive aimed at capturing the entire Donbass and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it, the country’s most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces.
The Russian bombing turned most of Severodonetsk into ruins and reduced its population from 100,000 to 10,000. The last remaining Ukrainian troops were hidden in underground shelters at the huge Azot chemical plant, along with hundreds of civilians. A separatist spokesman, Ivan Filiponenko, said earlier on Saturday that its forces had evacuated 800 civilians from the plant overnight, Interfax reported.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said some troops were heading to Lisichansk. But Russian moves to cut off Lisichansk will give some respite to these retreating troops.
About 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west, four Russian cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea hit a “military facility” in Yarovo, Lviv Regional Governor Maxim Kozitsky said. He did not give further details about the goal, but Yaroviv has a significant military base used to train fighters, including foreigners who have volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
Russian missiles hit the Yarovov base in March, killing 35 people. The Lviv region, although far from the front line, came under fire at various times during the war as the Russian military worked to destroy fuel storage sites.
About 30 Russian rockets were fired at the Zhytomyr region of central Ukraine on Saturday morning, killing a Ukrainian soldier, said regional governor Vitaly Buchenko. He said all strikes were aimed at military targets.
In the northwestern part, two rockets hit a service and car service in Sarny, killing three people and injuring four, said Rovno regional governor Vitaly Koval. He posted a photo of the destruction. Sarny is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the border with Belarus.
In southern Ukraine on the Black Sea coast, nine missiles fired from Crimea hit the port city of Nikolaev, the Ukrainian army said.
In the north, about 20 rockets were fired from Belarus in the Chernihiv region, the Ukrainian military said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russian bombers’ use of Belarusian airspace for the first time on Saturday’s attack was “directly linked to the Kremlin’s attempts to drag Belarus into the war.”
Belarus hosts Russian troops and was used as a springboard before Russia invaded Ukraine, but its own troops did not cross the border.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in an evening video address that as the war, which Moscow expected to last five days, moved to its fifth month, Russia “feels compelled to organize such a missile show.”
He said the war was at a difficult stage, “when we know that the enemy will fail, when we understand that we can defend our country, but we do not know how long it will take, how many more attacks, losses and efforts before we see that victory is already on our horizon. “
During a meeting in St. Petersburg with Lukashenko, Putin told him that Iskander-M missile systems would arrive in the coming months. He noted that they can fire either ballistic or cruise missiles and carry nuclear as well as conventional warheads. Russia fired several Iskander missiles at Ukraine during the war.
After a failed attempt to take Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in the early stages of the invasion, which began on February 24, Russian forces shifted their focus to Donbass, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the withdrawal of Ukrainians from Severodonetsk “tactically retrograde” to consolidating forces in positions where they can better defend themselves. The move will intensify Ukraine’s efforts to keep Russian forces pressed in a small area, the official said.
Following repeated requests from Ukraine to its Western allies for heavier armaments to counter Russia’s advantage in firepower, four US medium-range missile systems arrived this week, with four more on the way.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released a video Saturday showing the first use of highly mobile artillery missile systems or HIMARS in Ukraine. The video did not provide a location or indication of the purpose. The missiles can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
The senior US defense official said on Friday that more Ukrainian forces were being trained outside Ukraine to use HIMARS and were expected to return to their country with weapons by mid-July. 18 US coastal and river patrol boats will also be sent.
The official said there was no evidence that Russia had intercepted the steady flow of weapons to Ukraine from the United States and other countries. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or in fact claimed to have struck such shipments.
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