Missiles fired across Ukraine
Russian military cements gains in last holdout
Russian forces were seeking to swallow up the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, while pressing their momentum following the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk. The military said Saturday that Moscow-backed separatists were now in full control of the chemical plant that was the last Ukrainian holdout in the city.
Russia also launched dozens of missiles on several areas across the country far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired from Russian longrange Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus for the first time, Ukraine’s air command said.
The bombardment preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, during which Putin announced that Russia planned to send the Iskander-M missile system to Belarus.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian and separatist forces now fully control Sievierodonetsk and the villages surrounding it. He said the Ukrainian forces’ attempt to turn the Azot plant into a “stubborn center of resistance” had been thwarted.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, confirmed that Russian and separatist fighters now control Sievierodonetsk and they were now trying to blockade Lysychansk from the south. The city lies across a river just to the west of Sievierodonetsk, which endured weeks of bombardment and house-tohouse fighting.
Capturing Lysychansk would give Russian forces control of every major settlement in the province, a significant step toward Russia’s aim of capturing the entire Donbas region. The Russians and separatists also control about half of Donetsk, the second province in the Donbas.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lysychansk and that fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Ukrainian side.
Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk have been the focal point of a Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it — the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces.
Russian bombardment has reduced most of Sievierodonetsk to rubble and cut its population from 100,000 to 10,000. The last Ukrainian troops had holed up in the huge Azot chemical plant on the city’s edge, along with hundreds of civilians. A separatist representative, Ivan Filiponenko, said earlier Saturday that its forces evacuated 800 civilians from the plant during the night, Interfax reported.
After Haidai said Friday that Ukrainian forces had begun retreating from Sievierodonetsk, military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said some of the troops were heading for Lysychansk. But Russian moves to cut off Lysychansk will give those retreating troops little respite.
Some 600 miles to the west, four Russian cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea hit a “military object” in Yaroviv, Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. He did not give further details of the target, but Yaroviv has a sizable military base used for training fighters, including foreigners who have volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
Russian missiles struck the Yaroviv base in March, killing 35 people.
The Lviv region has come under fire at various points in the the war as Russia’s military worked to destroy fuel storage sites.
About 30 Russian missiles were fired Saturday morning, on the Zhytomyr region in central Ukraine killing one Ukrainian soldier, regional governor Vitaliy Buchenko said.
In the northwest, two missiles hit a service station and auto repair center in Sarny, killing three people and wounding four, the Rivne regional governor, Vitaliy Koval, said.