Posted in: 03/07/2022 – 07:31
At least three people were killed on Sunday and dozens of apartment buildings were damaged, the governor of the Russian city of Belgorod said, as fighting raged in the city of Lyschansk, Ukraine’s last stronghold in the strategic eastern Lugansk region. Ukrainian National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk said that the city is still in the hands of the Ukrainians, adding that “the enemy’s goal here is to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.”
declared ruler Russian Belgorod Vyatislav Gladkov said at least three people were killed on Sunday, while dozens of apartment buildings were damaged in this border region with Ukraine. He said that 11 residential buildings and 39 private homes were damaged, five of which were completely destroyed.
He explained that four people were injured and two were taken to hospital, including a 10-year-old child. Belgorod has a population of 400,000 people and is located about 40 km north of the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for previous attacks, but it has described the incidents as a response to the Russian invasion.
Fighting intensified in Lysechansk, Ukraine’s last stronghold in the strategic eastern Lugansk region, while explosions rocked the southern city of Mykolaiv after the civilian death toll from Russian strikes rose in towns behind the frontlines.
Russian media showed videos of Luhansk forces parading through the streets of Lysechansk, waving flags and chanting, but Ukrainian National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian national television that the city was still in the hands of the Ukrainians.
He added that “the enemy’s goal here is to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions…”.
For his part, President Oleksandr Senkevich wrote Mykolaiv municipality, Adjacent to the Black Sea port of Odessa, on Telegram: “There are strong explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!”
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It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts, although Russia said on Saturday it had targeted army command posts in the area. Archyde.com could not independently verify the reports. Ukrainian media quoted Vadim Denisenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, as saying that Russian allegations of besieging Lyschansk are false and aim to weaken the morale of Ukrainians and encourage pro-Russian forces.
Slow but steady gains for the Russian forces
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces stationed on the eastern front lines revealed intense artillery shelling that hit residential areas, while Russia says it is targeting military sites and denies targeting civilians.
The troop check follows slow but steady gains by Russian forces backed by relentless artillery bombardment in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces focus their operations after limiting their broader war aims to topple the government in the wake of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Moscow is seeking to drive Ukraine out of the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces that make up the Donbass industrial zone, where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces since Russia’s first military intervention in Ukraine in 2014.
Russian forces took control of Severodonetsk, a major city in Luhansk, this month after some of the fiercest fighting in the four-month-old war that reduced entire districts to rubble. Other communities are now facing similar bombardment.
FRANCE 24/Archyde.com