Ukrainian troops in key cities brace for Russian onslaught
DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — After weeks of artillery barrages, airstrikes and tank battles, Russian forces appear to have broken through a key part of Ukraine’s defensive line in the east, signaling the next step of their campaign to capture the last two major cities in the mineral-rich province of Luhansk.
The successful Russian advance is a watershed moment for Ukraine’s defense of the cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Either Ukraine’s forces will stay and defend, risking severed supply lines and the encirclement of thousands of troops, or they will withdraw, forfeiting the last urban centers of a region that makes up a large part of the Donbas, which Moscow has pledged to seize.
The two cities are split by the Siversky Donets River. Russian forces now control most of Sievierodonetsk, save a few pockets of resistance, and Ukrainian forces hold Lysychansk, where the hills bristle with their artillery.
The cities are part of a 30mile-wide pocket where Ukrainian troops are holding out, gradually squeezed by Russian forces. If the pocket collapses and Lysychansk falls, the Russians will have taken all of Luhansk, and will be able to reconsolidate and prepare to focus their offensive on the neighboring Donetsk region.
Troops in Lysychansk are bracing for an onslaught. “The last city is Lysychansk, and it will be very hard here, a lot of good guys will die,” said one Ukrainian soldier defending the city, who gave only his first name, Sergiy.
In recent days, Ukrainian tanks and other equipment have flooded into Lysychansk, which sits on higher ground, dominating nearby Sievierodonetsk and the rolling fields beyond. Ukrainian troops have dug new trenches on street corners and erected new roadblocks to create chokepoints for the Russian troops that are expected to arrive in the coming days and weeks.
Sergiy’s acknowledgment that a final battle for Lysychansk is near came as regional officials announced Wednesday that Russian troops had overrun three small towns to the southeast of the city.
The towns — Mirna Dolina, Pidlisne and Toshkivka — are little more than postage stamps in the country’s vast eastern expanse. But their collapse within days of one another marks a significant breach in Ukraine’s front line, bringing Russian forces to the doorstep of Lysychansk and threatening the few supply routes into the city.