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Reuters
KYIV — Ukraine states that as of Friday, Russian troops have "completely occupied" a town south of the strategically important city of Lysychans'k in the eastern part of Luhansk, and Moscow has about 2,000 in the region. Claimed to have surrounded the Ukrainian army of people.
The loss of Hiruske and several other settlements around it puts Lysychans'k, the last Ukrainian-dominated city in Luhansk, at risk of being besieged from three sides by the advance of Russian troops. I am.
"Unfortunately, as of today ... the entire Hirsuke district is occupied," Hilsuke's mayor Olexi Babchenko said on television. "There are some trivial local battles taking place in the suburbs, but the enemies have entered."
"(Hirsuke's) city administration has a red flag. "I'm doing it," a local government spokesman told Reuters on the phone.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that it surrounded up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops in Hirsuke, including 80 foreign fighters. Reuters was unable to validate the report on its own.
A local government spokesperson refused to comment on this allegation.
At a daily briefing on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that its troops had "completely isolated" a group of Ukrainian troops near Hirsuke and Zolote. It said it surrounded four Ukrainian battalions, an artillery group, and a "foreign mercenary detachment."
He added that half of Zolote was under Russian control and launched an "uninterrupted attack" around Ukrainian troops surrounded by Hirsuke.
Ukraine said on Friday that its troops had withdrawn from Lysychans' sister city, Sieviero Donetsk. Power.
"Our army had to withdraw and make a tactical withdrawal because there was essentially no defense left. There was no city left. Second, we couldn't allow them to be surrounded, "said Olexander Musienko, a military analyst based in Kieu. (Report by Max Hunder and Tom Balmforth, edited by Mark Heinrich and William Maclean)
