Russians push to complete takeover of Ukraine’s Donbas region
Russian forces yesterday battled to surround the Ukrainian military’s last stronghold in a long-contested eastern province, as shock reverberated from a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall that killed at least 18 in the center of the country.
Moscow’s battle to wrest the entire Donbas region from Ukraine saw Russian forces pushing toward two villages south of Lysychansk while Ukrainian troops fought to prevent their encirclement.
Britain’s defence ministry said Russian forces were making “incremental advances” in their offensive to capture Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk province under Ukrainian control following the retreat of Ukraine’s forces from the neighbouring city of Sievierodonetsk.
Russian troops and their separatist allies control 95 per cent of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two provinces that make up the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas.
Avril Haines, the US Director of National Intelligence, said Russia “may think time is on its side” due to the escalating costs borne by the West and fatigue as the war grows longer. The most likely scenario predicted by American intelligence, Haines said, was a “grinding struggle” in which Russia consolidates its hold over southern Ukraine by the autumn.
The US correctly predicted Russia would invade Ukraine in February, but was wrong in assessing that it would quickly seize Kyiv. Speaking at an event in Washington yesterday, Haines said Russian President Vladimir Putin “has effectively the same political goals that he had previously, which is to say that he wants to take most of
Ukraine” and push it away from Nato.
However, there was a “mismatch” between Putin’s ambitions and his military’s abilities, he said.
Putin also said his goals in Ukraine have not changed since the start of the war. He said they were “the liberation of the Donbas, the protection of these people and the creation of conditions that would guarantee the security of Russia itself.” He made no mention of his original goals to “demilitarise” and “de-nazify” Ukraine.
Meanwhile, crews yesterday were continuing the search through the rubble of the shopping mall in Kremenchuk where Ukrainian authorities say 20 remain missing.
Ukrainian State Emergency Services press officer Svitlana Rybalko said along with the 18 people killed, investigators found fragments of eight more bodies. A number of survivors suffered severed limbs.
“This is pure genocide,” resident Tatiana Chernyshova said while going to lay flowers at the site.
“Such things cannot happen in the 21st century.”
“We need to engage everyone to help stop the war, help us fight these scum — these Russian aggressors.”
Psychologists working at the site with families said they were trying to help people come to terms with their loss.
“We are trying to help them release their emotions now, as later it becomes harder and much more painful,” said one psychologist, who did not give his name as he was not authorised to speak to the press.
After the attack on the mall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of becoming a “terrorist” state.