Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that Russian troops along with members of a local separatist militia “have taken full control of the city of Lysychansk,” a ministry statement said. The seizure of Lysychansk constitutes “the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” one of two breakaway regions in Ukraine that Russia recognizes as sovereign, the statement said. Ukrainian fighters have spent weeks trying to defend Lysychansk and prevent it from falling to Russia, as neighboring Sievierodonetsk did a week ago. A presidential adviser predicted late Saturday that the city’s fate could be decided within days. Ukrainian officials did not immediately provide an update on his condition. Earlier on Sunday, Luhansk’s governor said Russian forces were reinforcing their positions in a grueling battle to capture the last resistance stronghold in the province. “The conquerors threw all their forces into Lysychansk. They attacked the city with incomprehensibly cruel tactics,” Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on the Telegram messaging app. “They are suffering significant losses, but they are moving forward stubbornly. They are gaining a foothold in the city.” A river separates Lysychansk from Sievierodonetsk. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said during an online interview late Saturday that Russian forces had for the first time managed to cross the river from the north, creating a “threatening” situation. Arestovich said they had not reached the center of the city, but that the course of the fighting showed that the battle for Lysihansk would be decided by Monday. Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk are the two provinces that make up Donbas, where Russia has focused its offensive since pulling out of northern Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv, in the spring. Pro-Russian separatists have held parts of both eastern provinces since 2014, and Moscow recognizes all of Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign republics. Syria’s government said Wednesday it would also recognize the “independence and sovereignty” of the two regions. Taking Lysychansk would open the way for the Russians to move west into Donetsk province, where the large Ukrainian-controlled city of Sloviansk has come under rocket attack several times since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Mayor Vadym Lyakh said new attacks on Sunday killed an unspecified number of people. Elsewhere in the war, the exiled mayor of the Russian-held city of Melitopol said on Sunday that Ukrainian missiles had destroyed one of four Russian military bases in the city. The governor of the Belgorod region in western Russia said four people were killed Sunday by shrapnel from an intercepted Ukrainian missile. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that two Ukrainian drones were shot down over the city of Kursk. Kursk regional governor Roman Starovoit said the town of Tetkino, on the border with Ukraine, came under mortar fire. The leader of neighboring Belarus, a Russian ally, claimed on Saturday that Ukraine fired missiles at military targets on Belarusian soil several days ago, but all were intercepted by an air defense system. President Alexander Lukashenko called the alleged attack a provocation and noted that no Belarusian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine. There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian military. Belarus hosts Russian military units and was used as a staging post for the Russian invasion. Last week, just hours before Lukashenko was due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian long-range bombers fired missiles at Ukraine from Belarusian airspace for the first time. Lukashenko has so far resisted attempts to drag his army into war. But during their meeting, Putin announced that Russia planned to supply Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system and reminded Lukashenko that his government depends on financial support from Russia.
Ebel reported from Prokovsk, Ukraine.
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