Article authors:
Reuters
Tom Balmforce and Marco Julica
KYIV / POKROVSK — Ukrainian special forces remain in Sieviero Donetsk and instruct Russian-backed troops to fire. The Ukrainian president's adviser said after the city that Kyiv struggled to maintain control of the eastern part of the country, causing a major setback for Kyiv.
Saturday's Ukrainian bombardment forced Russian troops to stop the evacuation of people from the Sieviero Donetsk chemical plant just hours after Moscow troops occupied the city. Said the Tas news agency, the local police said.
The collapse of Severodonetsk after several weeks of the bloodiest battles of the war is the biggest defeat for Ukraine as it lost control of Mariupol's southern port in May.
Ukraine called the withdrawal from the city a "tactical withdrawal" in order to fight from the hills of Lysychans'k on the other side of the Donets River. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow troops are currently attacking Lysychans'k.
The collapse of Severodonetsk, once inhabited by more than 100,000 people, is now a wasteland, a few weeks after the eastern part, with only a slight increase in Moscow's thermal power advantage. It changed the battlefield of.
Russia is now pushing the banks on the other side to occupy more land, but Ukraine has paid Russian troops for the price Moscow paid to occupy the ruins of a small city. I want to be vulnerable to counterattacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed by video address that Ukraine will regain the lost city, including Severodonetsk. But acknowledging the emotional sacrifice of the war, he said:
Ukraine's military intelligence director, Kirilo Budanov, told Reuters that Ukraine is conducting a "tactical reorganization" by withdrawing troops from Severodonetsk.
"Russia uses the tactics used in Mariupol. It wipes the city from the surface of the earth," he said. "Given the conditions, it is no longer possible to maintain defense in the ruins and open fields. Therefore, Ukrainian troops are leaving for higher ground to continue their defense operations."
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that Russian troops had complete control of Severodonetsk and the nearby town of Boribsk, "as a result of a successful attack operation."
Zelenskiy's senior adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Ukrainian special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk to direct the Russians to fire. However, he did not mention that those forces showed direct resistance.
Russia's Interfax news agency represents pro-Russian separatist fighters, saying that Russian and pro-Russian troops crossed the river into Lysychans'k, where they were fighting in urban areas. Was quoted.
Missile rainfall
Russia also launched missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday. A local local army chief said at least three people were killed and others were rubble in the town of Sarney, about 185 miles (300 km) west of Kyiv, after a rocket crashed into a car wash and car repair facility. He said he may have been buried in. management.
Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West say Russian troops have committed war crimes against civilians.
Russian missiles also attacked elsewhere overnight. "48 cruise missiles. At night. All over Ukraine," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mihairo Podriak said on Twitter. "Russia is still threatening Ukraine and causing a panic."
Ukrainian top general Valerie Sarginy has added to the newly arrived Telegram app the advanced HIMARS rocket system from the United States. Wrote and wrote that it hit a target in the Russian occupied territory of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden and a group of seven other leaders attending a summit meeting in Germany starting Sunday in search of further tightening of Russian screws, new gold from Russia Will agree to the import ban. The problem told Reuters.
The UK is ready to guarantee another $ 525 million in World Bank loans to Ukraine later this year, bringing total financial support to $ 1.5 billion this year. Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson said prior to the G7. meeting.
"Ukraine can and will win, but we need our help to do so. Now is not the time to give up Ukraine," Johnson said in a statement on Saturday. rice field.
'IT WAS HORROR'
In the Ukrainian-owned town of Donbus, Pokrovsk, dozens of elderly women in wheelchairs from Lysychans'k arrive by bus from the front line. Was one of the evacuees. ..
"Lysychans'k, I was horror last week. I couldn't take it anymore yesterday," she said. "If I die, I have already told my husband, bury me behind the house."
On February 24, Russian President Vladimirputin crossed the border into tens of thousands. The largest land conflict in Europe, five months after World War II, after sending troops to kill thousands and unleash millions of eradicated conflicts. It also caused an energy and food crisis that has shaken the world economy.
Due to the defeat of Russian troops in the March attack on the capital Kyiv, Russia shifted its focus to the eastern territory of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian fortresses in Luhansk.
Moscow states that Luhansk and Donetsk, which have been supporting the uprising since 2014, are independent countries. It requires Ukraine to ceded the entire territory of the two states to a separatist government.
(Report by Reuters, Written by Michael Perry, Edited by Edmund Cramant)
