Ukraine has so far prevented any significant Russian advance in the north of the Donetsk region, but the pressure is intensifying with heavy shelling, rockets and rockets in the city of Sloviansk and nearby residential areas, Kiev’s military said on Wednesday. Russia and separatist proxies were already in control of the southern part of Donetsk province when they effectively completed their takeover of neighboring Luhansk region on Sunday by seizing Lysychansk, much of which now lies in ruins. Moscow says ousting the Ukrainian army from the two areas is central to what it calls a “special military operation” to ensure its own security, a more than four-month offensive that the West calls an unprovoked war. Donetsk and Luhansk provinces include Donbass, Ukraine’s eastern, heavily industrialized region that has become Europe’s biggest battleground for generations and over which Russia wants to wrest control from separatists it supports. In its evening note on Wednesday, Ukraine’s general staff suggested that Russian forces step up pressure on Ukrainian defenders along the northern flanks of the Donetsk region. He said Russian forces were shelling several Ukrainian cities with heavy weapons to allow ground forces to advance south into the region and approach Sloviansk. “The enemy is trying to improve its tactical position … () advanced … before being repulsed by our soldiers and retreating with losses,” the Ukrainian military briefing said. Other Russian forces, he said, were aiming to capture two towns en route to the city of Kramatorsk, south of Sloviansk, and were also trying to take control of the main highway linking Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Russia had also carried out airstrikes in support of ground forces in the region, he added. “We are holding back the enemy on the (Luhansk/Donetsk) border,” Luhansk Governor Serhii Gaidai said earlier on Ukrainian television. Sloviansk Mayor Vadim Liak said in a news video that the city had been bombed for the past two weeks. “The situation is tense,” he said, adding that 17 residents have been killed there since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine on February 24. Russia’s defense ministry says it does not target civilians and on Wednesday said it uses high-precision weapons to counter military threats. It said it destroyed two advanced US-made HIMARS missile systems and their ammunition depots in Donetsk province. Ukraine has denied this and said it is using HIMARS to inflict “devastating blows” on Russian forces. Russia’s invasion has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened cities. It also raised global energy and food prices and the specter of famine in poorer countries, as Ukraine and Russia are both major grain producers. To the south, the port of Mykolayiv was also heavily shelled, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said in a briefing. The city had shed about half its pre-war population of half a million. “There are no safe areas in Mykolaiv,” he said. “I’m telling people … they have to leave.” In Kramatorsk, which Russian forces are expected to try to capture in the coming weeks, Ukrainian soldiers and a few civilians went about their business in green-painted cars and trucks on Wednesday. Much of the population has left. “It’s almost deserted. It’s scary,” said Oleksandr, a 64-year-old retired metal worker. He is unlikely to follow official evacuation advice, he said, despite an increase in rocket attacks on the city. “I’m not looking for death, but if I meet it I’d better be at home,” he said. A group of artillerymen, who declined to give their names, were smoking outside a bar. They said it would make their lives easier if civilians evacuated the frontline cities. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast but outside Donbass, was also under “continuous” long-range Russian shelling, with many buildings destroyed overnight, mayor Ihor Terekhov told Ukrainian television. “Russia is trying to discourage Kharkiv, but it will get nowhere,” he said. Ukrainian defenders pushed Russian armored forces far back from Kharkiv early in the war, and Terekhov said about a million residents remained there. Russia says it was forced to try to demilitarize Ukraine after the West ignored its calls to guarantee that the former Soviet republic and its neighbor would not be admitted to NATO. Moscow says it also had to root out dangerous nationalists and protect Russian speakers. Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia’s stated goals are a pretext for an unprovoked, imperial-style land grab. In a sign that Moscow is not preparing to shut down soon, Russia’s parliament on Wednesday passed bills requiring businesses to supply goods to the armed forces and forcing employees at some companies to work overtime. 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.
