Donbas city falling apart after shelling

A Ukrainian official has warned of deteriorating conditions in a city captured by Russian forces two weeks ago, saying Sievierodonetsk is without water, power or a sewage system while dead bodies decompose in hot apartment buildings.

Governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russians are unleashing indiscriminate artillery barrages as they try to secure their gains in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province.

Moscow this week claimed full control of Luhansk, but the governor and other Ukrainian officials said their troops retained a small part of the province.

“Luhansk hasn’t been fully captured even though the Russians have engaged all their arsenal to achieve that goal,” Mr Haidai said.

“Fierce battles are going on in several villages on the region’s border. The Russians are relying on tanks and artillery to advance, leaving scorched earth.”

Russia’s forces “strike every building that they think could be a fortified position”, he said.

“They aren’t stopped by the fact that civilians are left there and they die in their homes and courtyards. They keep firing.”

Mr Haidai reported last week about 8,000 residents remained in the city, which had a pre-war population of around 100,000.

Some Ukrainian officials and soldiers said Russian forces levelled the city, Luhansk province’s administrative centre, before Ukraine’s troops were ordered out late last month to avoid their encirclement and capture.

After asserting full control of Luhansk, Mr Putin said Russian forces would have a chance to rest and recoup, but other parts of eastern Ukraine have come under sustained bombardment.

The Russian leader warned Kyiv it should quickly accept Moscow’s terms or brace for the worst.

“Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven’t even yet started anything in earnest,” Mr Putin said while speaking with leaders of the Kremlincontrolled parliament on Thursday.

Ukraine’s presidential office said yesterday that at least 12 civilians were killed and another 30 wounded by Russian shelling over the previous 24 hours.

Two cities in Donetsk – which is the other Donbas province – experienced the heaviest barrage, with six people killed and 21 wounded.

Commenting on Mr Putin’s ominous statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader was reacting to statements by Ukraine’s government and its western allies about defeating Russia on the battlefield.

“Russia’s potential is so big that just a small part of it has been used in the special military operation,” Mr Peskov told reporters.

“And so Western statements are utterly absurd and just add to the grief of the Ukrainian people.”

DRIVEN OUT: A Ukraine military chaplain helps grandmother Shara leave her home in the Sloviansk region after sustained Russian rocket attacks became unbearable.