Gaidai said that 90% of the buildings in Sievierodonetsk were damaged with 14 skyscrapers destroyed in the latest shelling.
Photo: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images
The Ukrainian forces may have to withdraw from their last holdout in the Luhansk region to avoid capturesaid an official from that country, while the advance of Russian troops in the east has changed the momentum of the war.
A Withdrawal could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of fully capturing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine. His troops have gained ground in the two areas known collectively as Donbas, while some towns have been turned into wastelands.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops had entered Sievierodonetsk, the largest Donbas city still in Ukraine hands, after trying to trap defending forces there for days, though he added that forces Russian forces could not capture the Luhansk region “as analysts have said.”
“We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, it is possible that in order not to be surrounded, we may have to withdraw,” Gaidai said on Telegram.
Gaidai said that 90% of the buildings in Sievierodonetsk were damaged with 14 skyscrapers destroyed in the latest shelling.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Gaidai said there were some 10,000 Russian troops based in the region and they were “trying to make a profit in any direction they could.”
He said several dozen medical personnel remained in Sievierodonetsk but were having difficulty reaching hospitals due to shelling.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was protecting its land “as much as our current defense resources allow.”
“If the occupiers think that Lyman and Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas he will be Ukrainian,” Zelensky said in a speech.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Saturday that Ukrainian forces had repelled eight Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the previous 24 hours.
Russia’s attacks included artillery assaults in the Sievierodonetsk area “without success”, he said.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that while Russian forces had begun direct attacks on built-up areas of Sievierodonetsk, they would likely struggle to gain ground in the city itself.
“Russian forces have performed poorly in operations on built-up urban terrain during the war,” they said.
Russian troops advanced after piercing Ukrainian lines last week in the town of Popasna, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Russian ground forces have captured several villages northwest of Popasna, Britain’s Defense Ministry said.
Resident Natalia Kovalenko had left the basement where she was sheltering in the rubble of her apartment, with its windows and balcony destroyed.
She said a shell hit the patio, killing two people and wounding eight more.
“We are tired of being so scared,” he said.
Russia’s gains in the east follow the withdrawal of its forces from approaches to the capital kyiv, and a Ukrainian counteroffensive that pushed its forces back from Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkov.
Russian forces shelled parts of Kharkiv on Thursday for the first time in days, killing nine people, authorities said.
The Kremlin denies targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation.”
In the south, where Moscow has seized a swath of territory since the Feb. 24 invasion, including the port of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials say Russia intends to impose a permanent government.
In the Kherson region in the south, Russian forces were strengthening defenses and shelling Ukrainian-held areas, the region’s Ukrainian governor told media.
Another official said Russian forces had shelled the city of Zelenodolsk.
On the diplomatic front, European Union officials said a deal could be reached on Sunday to ban deliveries of Russian oil by sea, which accounts for about 75% of the bloc’s supply, but not by pipeline, a compromise to win over Hungary and clear the way. for new sanctions.
Zelensky accused the EU of dithering about banning Russian energy, saying the bloc was funding Russia’s war and the delay “simply means more Ukrainians die.”
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