 |
| A service member of pro-Russian troops rides on top of an armored personnel carrier amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine |
International Military - Ukrainian troops defend their positions in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. The Kiev army had to face a "rain" of artillery from Russian troops.
The battle amidst the ruins of Sievierodonetsk, a small industrial city, has become one of the bloodiest wars. Russia concentrated its invasion force there. Both sides say they have inflicted heavy casualties.
Read Also: President Volodymyr Zelensky Hangs East Ukraine's Fate In Battle of Severodonetsk City
Sievierodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river are the last part of the Ukrainian province of Luhansk. Moscow is determined to seize it as one of its main war objectives. "They (Russians) are dying like flies. Fierce fighting continues inside Sievierodonetsk," Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post.
Gaidai expects Russia to try to take advantage of the low water level to cross the Siverskyi Donets river. "We are monitoring and if something happens we will act proactively," he continued. Russian troops are focusing all their strength in the area, Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Read Also: Fierce Battle, Russia Reportedly Controls Most City of Severodonetsk
"They don't spare their people, they just send people like cannon fodder," he said. "They are shooting at our military day and night," he continued. Meanwhile, the mayor of Sievierodonetsk, Oleksandr Stryuk said on Thursday, about 10,000 civilians were still trapped inside the city.
That number was about a tenth of the pre-war population. In a rare update from Sievierodonetsk, the commander of the Ukrainian Svoboda National Guard Battalion, Petro Kusyk, said that Ukraine was pulling Russia into street fighting to neutralize Russia's artillery advantage. "Yesterday worked for us - we launched a counter-attack and in some areas we managed to push them back a block or two.
Read Also: Russia Claims To Have Destroyed a Ukrainian Mercenary Base in The City of Zhytomyr
Elsewhere they pushed us back, but only by a building or two," he said in a televised interview. But he added his troops were suffering a "catastrophic" shortage of counter-battery artillery to counter Russian weapons, and acquiring such weapons would change the terrain. war.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground in the city. To the west of Sievierodonetsk, Russia pushed in from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region consisting of Luhansk and the neighboring province of Donetsk.
Read Also: Zelensky Says Millions People Will Starve Due to Russian Blockade of Ukrainian Ports