Ukraine says troops have repelled attack in east as Russians struggle to gain ground

UKRAINIAN authorities said their troops have repelled a Russian attack in the east, as Moscow struggled to gain ground in the region that is now the focus of the war.

Battered by their long siege of the vital port city of Mariupol, Russian troops need time to regroup, according to an assessment by Britain’s Ministry of Defence. But they may not get it.

The city and the steelworks where Ukrainian fighters have held off the Russian assault for weeks have become a symbol of Ukraine’s stoic resistance and surprising ability to hinder a much larger force.

An undisclosed number of Ukrainian soldiers remained at the Azovstal steel plant. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said more than 1,900 had surrendered in recent days.

Also remaining at the plant are the bodies of soldiers who defended it while tying down Russian forces. Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment, which had led the defence of the plant, called them “fallen heroes”.

He said: “I hope soon relatives and the whole of Ukraine will be able to bury the fighters with honours.”

He also said that the defenders of Mariupol have received an order to “cease the defence of the city”. The intention is to “save the lives and

health of the servicemen of the garrison”, he said.

With the battle for the steel plant winding down, Russia has already started pulling troops back from the site. But the British assessment indicated Russian commanders are under pressure to quickly send them elsewhere in the Donbas.

“That means that Russia will probably redistribute their forces swiftly without adequate preparation, which risks further force attrition,” the MoD said.

The Donbas is now President Vladimir Putin’s focus after his troops failed to take the capital in the early days of the war. Pro-Moscow separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years in the region and held a considerable swathe of it before Russia’s invasion on February 24.

But the effort to take more territory there has been slow-going. In a sign of Russia’s frustration with the war, some senior commanders have been fired in recent weeks, the MoD said.

Russian forces attacked the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, both in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, the region’s governor said yesterday.

Twelve people were killed, and more than 60 houses were destroyed across the region, said Serhiy Haidai in a Telegram post.

But the attack on Severodonetsk was unsuccessful. Both Mr Haidai and Ukraine’s General Staff of the military said Russia took losses and retreated. Their reports could not be independently verified.