Troops leaving battered city as Russia hits east
KYIV, Ukraine — After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces have begun retreating from a besieged city in the country’s east to move to stronger positions, a regional governor said Friday, the fourmonth mark in Russia’s invasion.
The planned withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, comes after relentless Russian bombardment that has reduced most of the industrial city to rubble and cut its population from 100,0000 to 10,000. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city’s edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.
In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across a river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.
Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas region and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it — the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces. The two cities and surrounding areas are the last major pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region — 95% of which is under Russian and local separatist forces’ control. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas.
Russia used its numerical advantages in troops and weapons to pummel Sievierodonetsk in what has become a war of attrition, while Ukraine clamored for better and more weapons from its Western allies. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian military’s ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. Much of the city’s electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions.
“Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk,” Haidai told the Associated Press. “It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.”
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians’ move a “tactical retrograde” to consolidate forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. This will add to Ukraine’s effort to keep Russian forces pinned down longer in a small area, the official said.
Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing massive Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.
“As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing,” Haidai said. “The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.”
Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk, adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city’s edges but its defenders drove them out.