Russian forces close in on key Donbas region
10 killed in strikes on a military facility in
Lysychansk, Ukraine, May 27: Russian troops were moving in on the strategic city of Severodonetsk on Friday in a relentless offensive to control Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, bombing residential areas and claiming the capture of a key town.
At least nine people were killed a day earlier in shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, raising fears that Russia had not lost interest in the northeastern hub even after Ukraine managed to take back control.
Around 10 people were also killed in Russian strikes on a military facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, well away from the frontline of the offensive, the regional head of the national guard said.
Three months after Russia launched its invasion on February 24, leaving thousands dead on both sides and forcing 6.6 million Ukrainians out of the country, Moscow is focusing on the east of Ukraine after failing in its initial
ambition capture Kyiv.
Russian forces were closing in on Severodonetsk and also Lysychansk in the proseparatist Lugansk province, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraine’s eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk.
“Russia is pressuring the Severodonetsk pocket although Ukraine retains control of multiple defended sectors, denying Russia full control of the Donbas,” the British defence ministry said in its latest briefing.
A Lugansk police official, cited by Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, said Severodonetsk was “now surrounded” and Ukrainian troops could no longer leave the city.
That was denied by senior city official Oleksandr Stryuk, though he acknowledged that the situation was “very difficult” with incessant bombing. —