After progress was made in the strategic city of Severodonetsk, which is under intense Russian bombardment in eastern Ukraine, the situation there “aggravated” for the Ukrainian army following a visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky to the front line.
Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces are “maintaining their positions” in Severodonetsk, but the Russians are “more numerous and more powerful there”, so the situation is “difficult” on the eastern front.
In the evening, the Ukrainian military said that “the main efforts of the enemy are focused” on trying to completely capture this industrial center and “repel” Ukrainian forces in the neighboring Lysechhansk region.
“Our soldiers still control Severodonetsk and the fighting continues in the eastern part of it,” the army added.
“Street fight”
The governor of the Lugansk region, Sergey Gaidai, announced earlier that the situation had “aggravated for us”, despite the launch of a counter-offensive that allowed to regain control of half of the city.
For his part, the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Stryuk, told the Ukrainian news agency that “the situation changes every hour” and that “intensive street fighting” was underway, as well as an “exchange of artillery shelling”.
Gaidai confirmed that the shelling intensified on Severodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysichansk located “on the heights”, which is a strategy for the “steadfastness of the defense line”, and Zelensky visited Sunday to inspect his forces.
Gaidai accused the Russian forces of “destroying everything with their scorched-earth tactic…there is nothing left to defend.”
Severodonetsk is the largest city still held by the Ukrainians in the Lugansk region, where Russian forces have advanced in recent weeks after they withdrew or were expelled from the north of the country and around Kyiv.
Moscow attaches great importance to this city, as its control will be decisive in order to tighten its grip on the entire Donbass region, part of which has been controlled by separatists loyal to it since 2014.
In the last 24 hours, its armed forces continued their attack on several fronts in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv declared “seven attacks repelled” in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened, via Rossiya 1 television, to launch new strikes on “sites we have not targeted so far” if the Westerners handed long-range missiles to Ukraine, considering that this would be aimed at “prolonging the conflict.”
However, London announced Monday that it would supply Kyiv with M-270 MLRS missile launchers with a range of up to 80 km, similar to the American Hemar missile launchers that Washington promised last week.
Military experts note that this system has a slightly longer range than similar Russian systems, which will allow Ukrainian forces to strike enemy artillery from afar.