The claim couldn’t be independently verified.įollowing a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. In other battlefield reports, the Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of “foreign mercenaries” totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been “fully blocked” near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that some of the troops moving away from Sievierodonetsk are heading to the fight in Lysychansk. The governor added that a bridge leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and is unusable for trucks. Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk - from Zolote and Toshkivka - adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city’s edges but its defenders drove them out. “The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.”
“As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing,” Haidai told the AP. Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings. The head of the regional administration, Roman Vlasenko, said the withdrawal has already begun and will take several days. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions. Much of the city’s electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian military’s ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. 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. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas. 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. Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it - the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces. 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. 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. 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.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - 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 official said Friday, the four-month mark in Russia’s invasion.
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