Kyiv / POKROVSK, June 26 (Reuters) – Ukrainian special forces remained in Severodonetsk, firing artillery at Russian-backed troops, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said after the city fell into a serious obstacle for Kyiv as it struggled to maintain control of east of the country.
Ukrainian shelling on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Severodonetsk, just hours after Moscow forces took over the city, TASS reported, quoted by local police.
The fall of Severodonetsk, after weeks of some of the bloodiest battles in the war, is the biggest defeat for Ukraine since it lost control of the southern port of Mariupol in May.
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Ukraine called its withdrawal from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from a higher place in Lisichansk on the opposite bank of the Seversky Donets River. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lisichansk.
The fall of Severodonetsk – once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland – transformed the battlefield to the east in weeks when Moscow’s huge firepower advantage brought only slow gains.
Russia will now seek to push and seize more land on the opposite bank, while Ukraine will hope that the price Moscow pays for capturing the ruins of the small town will make Russian forces vulnerable to a counterattack.
President Vladimir Zelensky promised in a video address that Ukraine would regain the cities it had lost, including Severodonetsk. But acknowledging the emotional consequences of the war, he said: “We have no idea how long it will last, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory on the horizon.”
Kirilo Budanov, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, told Reuters that Ukraine was carrying out a “tactical regrouping” by withdrawing its forces from Severodonetsk.
“Russia is using the tactics … it is using in Mariupol: erasing the city from the face of the earth,” he said. “Given the conditions, keeping the defense in ruins and open fields is no longer possible. Thus, the Ukrainian forces left at a higher place to continue the defense operations. “
The Russian Defense Ministry said that “as a result of successful offensive operations”, Russian forces had established full control over Severodonetsk and the nearby town of Borivske.
Alexei Arestovich, a senior adviser to Zelensky, said some Ukrainian special forces were still in Severodonetsk, firing artillery fire at the Russians. But he did not mention that these forces offered direct resistance. Read more
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a representative of the pro-Russian separatist militants as saying that Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lisichansk across the river and were fighting in urban areas there.
THE ROCKETS ARE FALLING
Russia also launched missile strikes on Ukraine on Saturday. At least three people have been killed and others may have been buried in the rubble of the town of Sarny, about 300km west of Kyiv, after rockets hit a car wash and car repair shop, the head of the local regional army administration said.
Russia denies attacking civilians. Kyiv and the West claim that Russian forces have committed war crimes against civilians.
Russian missiles struck elsewhere during the night. “48 cruise missiles. At night. All over Ukraine,” Ukrainian President’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, to cause panic.
Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, wrote in the Telegram application that recently arrived advanced US-supplied HIMARS missile systems have already been deployed and hit targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Read more
In an effort to further tighten Russia’s screws, US President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven attending Sunday’s summit, which begins on Sunday, will agree to a ban on new gold imports from Russia. a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Read more
Britain is ready to secure another $ 525 million in loans from the World Bank of Ukraine later this year, with total fiscal support reaching $ 1.5 billion this year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ahead of the G7 summit.
“Ukraine can win and will win. But they need our support to do that. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine,” Johnson said in a statement Saturday.
“IT WAS A HORROR”
In the Ukrainian-controlled town of Pokrovsk in Donbas, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair from Lisichansk, was among dozens of evacuees arriving by bus from the front lines.
“Lisichansk, it was a horror last week. Yesterday we couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “I have already told my husband that if I die, please bury me behind the house.
The biggest land conflict in Europe since World War II has entered its fifth month, after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops across the border on February 24 and unleashed a conflict that killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also caused an energy and food crisis that is shaking the world economy.
After Russian forces were defeated in an attack on the capital Kyiv in March, it shifted its focus to Donbass, an eastern territory made up of the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. Sieverodonetsk and Lisichansk were the last major Ukrainian bastions in Luhansk.
Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has supported the 2014 uprisings, are independent states. He demanded that Ukraine cede the entire territory of the two provinces to separatist administrations.
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Reporting by Reuters offices; Writing by Michael Perry; Edited by Edmund Claman
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