STREET FIGHTING IN UKRAINIAN CITY
Fierce battle in Sievierodonetsk as Russia tries to conquer Donbas
UKRAINIAN troops battled Russians street-tostreet in the ruins of Sievierodonetsk yesterday, trying to hold onto gains from a surprise counter-offensive that had reversed momentum in one of the bloodiest land battles of the war.
The fight for the small industrial city has emerged as a pivotal battle in eastern Ukraine, with Russia focusing its offensive might there in the hope of achieving one of its stated war aims — to fully capture surrounding Luhansk province on behalf of separatist proxies.
After withdrawing from nearly all the city in the face of the Russian advance, Ukrainian forces
staged a surprise counter-attack last week, driving the Russians from a swath of the city centre.
“Our heroes are not giving up positions in Sievierodonetsk,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an overnight video address, describing fierce street fighting in the city. Earlier, he said the Ukrainians were outnumbered but still had “every chance” of fighting back.
Before Ukraine’s counter-offensive,
Russia had seemed on the verge of encircling Ukraine’s garrison in Luhansk province, cutting off the main road to Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk across the Siverskiy Donets river.
But following the counter-offensive, Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to Lysychansk on Sunday, personally demonstrating that Kyiv still had an open route to its troops’ redoubt.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said Russia was throwing troops and equipment into its drive to capture Sievierodonetsk.
In its nightly update, the Ukrainian military said two civilians were killed in Russian shelling in the Donbas, and Russian forces had fired at more than 20 communities.
In Druzhkivka, in the Ukrainian-held pocket of Donetsk province, residents were picking through the wreckage of houses obliterated by the latest shelling.
“Please help, we need materials for the roof, the house, there are people without shelter,” shouted Nelya outside her home where the roof had been shredded.
“My niece, she has two small children, she had to cover one of her children with her own body,” she said.
Meanwhile, the bodies of some Ukrainian fighters killed defending the city of Mariupol from Russian forces at a vast steel works have been handed over to Kyiv, the families of Ukraine’s Azov unit of the national guard said.