Russians take the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province. Russian forces pounded the city of Lysychansk and its surroundings in an all-out attempt to seize the last piece of the jigsaw.
Ukrainian fighters have spent weeks trying to defend the city and keep it from falling to Russia, as neighbouring Sievierodonetsk did a week ago.
A river separates Lysychansk from Sievierodonetsk, and Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said during an interview on Saturday that Russians had managed for the first time to cross the river from the north, creating a “threatening” situation.
Russians take the stronghold but had not reached the city’s centre, but according to a parliamentary advisor control over Lysychansk would be decided by Monday.
On Saturday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published a video which shows how the Russians take the last stronghold in the city.
In the film, one of their commanders declares the city is under full control and a clean-up operation is underway.
Ukrainians have not given up
Despite the heavy bombardment from Russian forces, the Ukrainians still hope to fight back and push the Russians back. They have done it before when taking the snake islands back.
“Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons,” Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Saturday on the Telegram messaging app and said its fate would be decided within the next two days.
The Ukrainians will determine whether to allow the Russians ta take control and focus the fight elsewhere or whether the Ukrainian armed forces will send more men to fight back.
The Ukrainian spirit is still strong despite the overwhelming might of the Russian armed forces, but the Ukrainians have not given up.
Pro-Russia separatists have held portions of both eastern provinces since 2014, and Moscow recognizes all of Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign republics.
Syria’s government said Wednesday that it would also recognize the “independence and sovereignty” of the two areas and work to establish diplomatic relations.
Russians take the last stronghold by ‘levelling the city’
Volodymyr Nazarenko, second in command and was part of the June 24 retreat from Sievierodonetsk, describes how the Russians took the last stronghold and said the Russians had “methodically levelled” the city.
He described how Russian tanks targeted one building after another, moving on after each one was destroyed.
He also said Russian troops “obliterated any potential defensive positions with constant artillery and burned down forests to prevent trench warfare.”
Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk are the two provinces that make up the Donbas, where Russia has focused its offensive since pulling back from northern Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv, in the spring.
The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that the Russian military is targeting fuel storage sites and military facilities, not residential areas, although missiles also recently hit a shopping centre in the central city of Kremenchuk.
Moscow has repeatedly referred to this as a special operation in liberating the pro-Russian areas in the east. It has more or less met its objective.
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