Russian forces captured Lysychansk’s sister city Sievierodonetsk across the Siverskiy Donets River last month after some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russian television that “Lysychansk has been brought under control,” but added: “Unfortunately, it has not been liberated yet.”
Read more: Russian forces attack eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province
Russian media showed video of Luhansk militiamen marching through the streets of Lysychansk waving flags and cheering, but Ukrainian National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian television that the city remained in Ukrainian hands. Story continues below ad “Now there is fierce fighting near Lysychansk, however, fortunately, the city is not surrounded and is under the control of the Ukrainian army,” Muzychuk said. Zelenskiy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces had finally crossed the Siverskiy Donets River and were approaching the city from the north. “This is indeed a threat. We’ll see. I’m not ruling out any of the many outcomes here. Things will become much clearer in a day or two,” he said. “If Lysychansk is captured, strategically it becomes more difficult for the Russians to continue their offensive. The front lines will be flatter and there will be a frontal attack rather than flanking.” 2:31 ‘I had to do what I could’: Canadian fighting on Ukraine’s frontline ‘I had to do what I could’: Canadian fighting on Ukraine’s frontline He said the Russians should focus on capturing six major cities in the industrialized eastern Donbas region, and with each one their forces would be spread more thinly. Story continues below ad “The more Western weapons come to the front, the more the picture changes in favor of Ukraine,” he said. Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for more weapons from the West, saying its forces are heavily armed. Elsewhere, Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, which borders the vital Black Sea port of Odessa, reported heavy explosions in the city on Saturday. “Stay in shelters!” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app as air raid sirens sounded. 2:21 Russia accused of civilian bombing campaign and escalation of attacks in Ukraine Russia accused of civilian bombing campaign and escalation of attacks in Ukraine The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, although Russia later said they hit military command posts. Trending Stories
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Reuters could not independently verify reports on the battlefield. Ukrainian authorities said a rocket hit an apartment building near Odessa on Friday, killing at least 21 people. A shopping center was hit on Monday in the central city of Kremenchuk, killing at least 19. Story continues below ad Zelensky denounced the strikes on Friday as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terrorism and not some kind of mistake or accidental missile strike.” ‘VERY DIFFICULT ROAD’ In his late-night televised address on Saturday, Zelensky said it would be a “very difficult road” to victory, but Ukrainians must maintain their resolve and inflict casualties on “the aggressor … so that every Russian remembers that Ukraine it cannot be broken.” Kyiv says Moscow has stepped up missile attacks on cities far from the main eastern battlegrounds and has deliberately hit civilian sites. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops on the eastern frontline describe intense artillery barrages in populated areas. Thousands of civilians have been killed and cities leveled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Russia’s denials that it was targeting civilians. Russia is seeking to expel Ukrainian forces from Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in the Donbass, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since Russia’s first military intervention in Ukraine in 2014. READ MORE: Germans urged to prepare for possible gas shortage amid Russia war Troops on a break from fighting and speaking in Konstyantynivka, a town about 115km west of Lysychansk, said they had managed to keep the supply route to the embattled town open for now despite Russian shelling. Story continues below ad “We still use the road because we have to, but it’s within artillery range of the Russians,” said one soldier as comrades relaxed nearby, eating sandwiches or eating ice cream. “The Russian tactic at the moment is to bomb any building we could find ourselves in. When they’ve destroyed that, they move on to the next one,” he said. Reuters reporters saw an unexploded rocket fall to the ground in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of the Donbas city of Kramatorsk on Saturday night. 1:50 Russia on the brink of taking control of Ukraine’s key stronghold of Severodonetsk Russia on the verge of control of Ukraine’s key stronghold of Severodonetsk – June 13, 2022 The missile landed in a wooded area between residential towers. Outgoing artillery fire and several large explosions were heard in central Kramatorsk earlier in the evening. Despite being battered in the east, Ukrainian forces have made some progress elsewhere, including forcing Russia to withdraw from Snake Island, a Black Sea outcropping southeast of Odessa that Moscow seized at the start of the war. Story continues below ad Russia had used Snake Island to impose a blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters and a major producer of vegetable oil seeds. The disruptions helped drive up grain and food prices worldwide. Russia, also a major grain producer, blames the crisis on Western sanctions that hit its exports.
