With the Russian forces taking control of the city of Mariupol In full, Ukrainian leaders warned of a painful and difficult situation in Severodonetsk, one of the last major cities in the eastern Lugansk province still under Kyiv’s control.
A high-ranking official made it clear that the city had become a “new Mariupol,” as he described it, according to what was quoted by the “Washington Post” newspaper.
strategic city
Military analysts said Russian forces were trying to encircle the strategic city in an attempt to seize all of Lugansk.
Russian forces destroyed a bridge in Severodonetsk on Saturday, making it more difficult to evacuate people and bring in supplies.
The region’s governor, Serhi Heidi, indicated on Sunday that the city would be completely isolated if another bridge was destroyed.
He said about 10,000 people remained in Severodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of more than 100,000 and most of them were “almost permanently in shelters”.
evacuating civilians
Meanwhile, authorities in the Lugansk region are pressing civilians to evacuate as Russia continues its advances in the east of the country.
And the police said in a post on Saturday via Telegram, that the bombing was intolerable in the area, and they said that they were working to help the wounded.
In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier Sunday that the only way out of the war would be through diplomacy in addition to Kyiv’s victory on the battlefield.
Severodonetsk (AFP)
He added that up to 100 soldiers are killed every day in the hard-hit eastern region of his country.
Zelensky’s comments came in response to a question at a press conference alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda after the two men addressed the Verkhovna Rada.
“Today, between 50 and 100 people may be killed on the most difficult front, in the east,” he said. They are defending our country and our independence.”
Big losses
Ukraine has released relatively little information on battlefield deaths. Oleksiy Aristovich, an adviser to Zelensky, told BBC Ukraine in March that the country had incurred “significant” losses but would not release figures until the end.
It is noteworthy that since its withdrawal from the vicinity of the capital Kyiv last March, Moscow has launched the second phase of its military operation, which it described as the task, in the east and south of Ukraine.
Severodonetsk (AFP)
It has intensified its strikes with the aim of controlling the Donbass region, which is of great importance to the Russians, especially since full control of it, especially after they tightened their grip on the city of Mariupol in the southeast of the country, will open the land route easily between the east and the Crimea, which Russia annexed to its territory in 2014. .