Russia pounds rebel-claimed region, Ukraine pushes back

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russia redoubled its push for Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have repelled some advances as shelling killed at least eight civilians in the area over the past 24 hours and wounded 25. Pro-Russia separatists said Ukrainian attacks killed four civilians on their side of the front.

The Ukrainian armed forces General Staff said troops stopped enemy units advancing towards Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk, one of two provinces in the Donbas whose capture is among Moscow’s main goals. It also claimed to have repelled Russian attacks on a town and village north of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, just miles from the Russian border.

The Ukrainian presidential office said most civilian casualties were in Donetsk province, where Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said two people died in the city of Avdiivka; the cities of Sloviansk, Krasnohorivka and Kurakhove each reported one civilian killed.

“Every crime will be punished,” he wrote on social media.

Kyrylenko urged the province’s more than 350,000 remaining residents to flee late Tuesday, saying that evacuating Donetsk was necessary to save lives and allow the Ukrainian army to put up a better defense against the Russian advance.

Donetsk is part of the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where Ukraine’s most experienced soldiers are concentrated. Pro-Russian separatists have fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of the Donbas for eight years.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, the

two self-proclaimed separatist republics. Putin on Monday declared the complete seizure of Luhansk, after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the last city under their control in the province.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai denied Wednesday that the Russians had completely captured the province. Heavy fighting continued in villages around Lysychansk, the city Ukrainians soldiers withdrew from and which Russian troops took Sunday, he said.

He accused Russian forces of scorched earth tactics, “burning down and destroying everything on their way.”

The Russian military pounded Luhansk for weeks from the air and ground, causing mass destruction and large civilian casualties.