Russian forces struck targets across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday to pave the way for an expected armored push to try to seize more ground as the five-month war entered a new phase. The strikes, reported by regional officials and the Russian military, followed Moscow’s seizure of the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Sunday, a move that gave it full control of the Luhansk region, one of its main war targets. Taking full control of Donetsk, the neighboring region in Donbas, the industrialized eastern part of Ukraine that has become the stage of Europe’s biggest battle for generations, is another goal of what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” Ukrainian troops retreating from Lysychansk over the weekend captured defense lines in the Donetsk region on Tuesday, according to Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk region. Ukrainian forces were resisting Russian attempts to advance towards Sloviansk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. In a foretaste of what is likely to continue to happen in the coming weeks, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk region, told television that his region had been hit overnight. “Sloviansk and Kramatorsk were bombed. It is now also the main line of attack for the enemy,” he said. “There is no safe place without shelling in the Donetsk region.” Police in Sloviansk said a woman was killed and at least three other people were injured in a Russian strike on the market there. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. A Reuters reporter at the scene saw yellow smoke billowing from an auto supply store and flames engulfing rows of market stalls as firefighters tried to put out the blaze. Vadym Lyakh, the city’s mayor, wrote on Facebook that the center and the north of Sloviansk had been shelled. “Everyone remains in shelters!” he wrote. Russia’s defense ministry, which says it is not targeting populated areas, said it used high-precision weapons to destroy command centers and artillery in the Donetsk region, where Ukraine still controls some major cities. President Vladimir Putin has told troops involved in the seizure of Luhansk, which would also take part in any attempt to seize cities in Donetsk, to “rest and regain military readiness” while units elsewhere in Ukraine continue to fight. Both sides suffered heavy casualties in the battle for Luhansk, particularly during the siege of the twin cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Both are left devastated. A Reuters reporter who visited Lysychansk on Monday found widespread destruction and few residents in a city that was once home to nearly 100,000 people. Those who remained questioned found overturned Ukrainian police cars riddled with bullets, massive bomb-scorched local government buildings and the damaged golden dome of an Orthodox church. Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand over both Luhansk and Donetsk to Moscow-backed separatists, who have declared independence. MURAT YUKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call on Tuesday that he believes Ukraine’s military could retake territory recently seized by Russian forces. Johnson briefed Zelensky on the latest deliveries of British military equipment, including 10 self-propelled artillery systems and ammunition that will arrive in the coming days and weeks, a spokesman said. Zelensky’s adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russia took 90 days and paid a heavy price to capture two medium-sized cities. “This is the last victory for Russia on Ukrainian soil,” Arestovich said in a video posted online. He said that in addition to the battle for Donetsk, Ukraine hoped to launch counterattacks in the south of the country. Russia may struggle to redirect its forces there with 60 percent of them now concentrated in the east, he said. “And there are no other forces that can be imported from Russia. They paid a heavy price for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.” Some military experts reckoned the hard-fought victory had brought Russian forces little strategic gain, and the outcome of what was dubbed the “Battle of Donbass” remained in the balance. “I think it’s a tactical victory for Russia, but at a huge cost,” said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London. Melvin said the decisive battle for Kyiv is likely to be fought not in the east, where Russia is spreading its main offensive, but in the south, where Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to retake territory around the city of Kherson. “There are counterattacks starting there, and I think it’s very likely that we’ll see the swing of momentum toward Ukraine as it then tries to mount a large-scale counteroffensive to push back the Russians,” he said. Early Tuesday, Russian missiles hit Mykolayiv, a southern city on the main highway between Kherson and Odesa, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said. Zelensky said on Monday that despite Ukraine’s withdrawal from Lysychansk, its troops continued to fight. “Ukraine’s armed forces respond, repel and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day,” Zelensky said in a nightly video message. “We have to break them. It is a difficult undertaking. It requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no alternative.” The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 3 acknowledged that Kiev forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region after a fierce Russian offensive, but vowed to regain control of the area with the help of Western long-range weapons. Reuters
