“There was some success” Russian troops “managed to enter the city and seize a good part, dividing it in two. But our military managed to redeploy, build a line of defense. Currently, everything is being done to restore full Ukrainian control” over the city, Severodonetsk mayor Olexander Stryuk said in a television interview broadcast on the official regional Telegram account.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed earlier today that Ukrainian military units were withdrawing from Severodonetsk “having suffered critical losses in the fighting for Severodonetsk (up to 90% in several units)” to Lysychansk, a major city. neighbor.
“The situation is quite difficult, we are doing everything possible to repel the enemy from the city, street fighting continues accompanied by regular artillery fire,” said Striouk.
“Our armed forces are confident that they will get there,” he added.
“Fighting continues for full control of Severodonetsk,” said the Ukrainian army general staff in its Saturday evening update, without further details.
Russian forces have the stated objective of controlling the entire large mining basin of Donbass, which includes the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, of which pro-Russian separatists supported by Moscow took partial control in 2014.
The city of Severodonetsk, together with the neighboring city of Lyssychansk, located some 80 km from the Ukrainian regional administrative capital of Kramatorsk, is a key agglomeration to achieve this.
Severodonetsk, the administrative capital of the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Lugansk region, had some 100,000 inhabitants before the war.