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Ukrainian forces resisted a Russian offensive for weeks in Severodonetsk
Ukraine announced that Russian forces had taken control of the strategic city of Severodonetsk, after weeks of fierce bombardment.
“The Russians have completely occupied Severodonetsk, and our army has retreated to more prepared positions,” city mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television.
Weeks of Russian bombardment mostly reduced the city to rubble.
Many civilians have taken refuge in the huge Azot chemical plant, but Stryuk said the only way out now is through Russian-controlled territory.
Pro-Russian rebels say they have moved into parts of Lyschansk, the city facing Severodonetsk, across the Seversky Donetsk River. But Ukrainian officials did not confirm this.
During the past period, Severodonetsk, where about 100,000 people lived, witnessed bitter street fighting and most of its residents fled.
The capture of the city means that Russia now controls almost all of Luhansk region and much of neighboring Donetsk.
Both the Russian and Ukrainian military maintain that Russian forces control the Severodonetsk suburb of Sirotin and two small towns to its south: Voronov and Borevsky.
Ukraine’s military command says its forces have repelled Russian attacks southwest of Lyschansk.
Early on Saturday, Russia launched a barrage of missiles at targets in northern and western Ukraine.
photo released, Archyde.com
Iskander nuclear-capable tactical ballistic missile (photo from 2015)
The Ukrainian military says the attacks included – for the first time – missiles fired from Tu-22 bombers flying over Belarus to the north.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko in St Petersburg and pledged to deliver Iskander-M missiles to Belarus.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 included Russian armored columns sent from Belarus. Iskander missiles were previously deployed in Kaliningrad.
“In the next few months, we will provide Belarus with Iskander-M tactical missile complexes that can launch ballistic and cruise missiles, both conventional and nuclear,” Putin told Lukashenko.
Lukashenko asked Russia to make Belarusian warplanes capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and Putin said that the Belarusian Su-25 fighter jets would be modernized.
The Ukrainian military said Russian cruise missiles were also fired from ships in the Black Sea on Saturday. Reports said the missiles hit military facilities in the Lviv region in the west and Zhytomyr in northwest Ukraine, although a few were shot down.
Ukraine also reported a massive missile attack on Desna, a village near Chernihiv in the north.
At the Saint Petersburg meeting, Lukashenko criticized Lithuania’s decision to prevent Russia’s rail transport of some goods to Kaliningrad through its territory. The Belarusian leader said Lithuania’s move was “a kind of declaration of war” and “unacceptable”.
Steel and some other Russian goods are subject to European Union sanctions imposed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lithuania says its measures affect only 1% of normal Russian goods in transit on the road, rejecting Russian talk of a “blockade” of Kaliningrad.