Russian forces fully captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Svyarodonetsk on Saturday, weeks after both sides confirmed the war’s bloodiest battles in what has been Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month.
Ukraine called its withdrawal from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight the high ground at Lysichansk on the opposite bank of the Siversky Donets River. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lisichansk.
The fall of Svyarodonetsk – once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland – was Russia’s biggest victory since the capture of Mariupol port last month. It turns the battlefield to the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge gains in firepower had only been achieved by slow gains.
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Russia will now seek to capture more land on the opposite bank, while Ukraine hopes that the price Moscow paid for capturing the ruins of the small town will leave Russian forces vulnerable to counterattack.
President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed in a video address that Ukraine would win back its lost cities, including Svyarodonetsk. But acknowledging the war’s emotional toll, he said: “We have no idea how long it will last, before we see victory on the horizon, and how many blows, losses and efforts will be needed.”
“The city is now under full Russian occupation,” Svyarodonetsk mayor Oleksandr Stryk said on national television. “They are trying to establish their own order, which as far as I know has appointed some sort of commandant.”
Kyrillo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Reuters that Ukraine was conducting “a strategic regrouping” by pulling its forces from Svyarodonetsk.
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“Russia is using tactics … it used in Mariupol: wipe the city off the face of the earth,” he said. “Given the conditions, it is no longer possible to defend in ruins and open plains. Therefore Ukrainian forces are moving to higher ground to continue defense operations.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that “as a result of successful offensive operations” the Russian army had gained full control of Svyarodonetsk and the nearby city of Borivske.
Shortly thereafter, however, Ukrainian shelling from outside Svyarodonetsk prompted Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant, Russia’s Tass news agency quoted local police working with Russian separatist officials as saying. Compelled to.
Zelensky’s senior adviser, Oleksey Erestovich, said that some Ukrainian special forces were still in Svirodonetsk directing artillery fire against the Russians. But he made no mention of the forces which were giving any direct resistance.
Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing a representative of pro-Russian separatist fighters, said Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lisichansk across the river and were fighting in urban areas there.
Russia also launched missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday. The chief of the local regional army said at least three people were killed and others were buried under rubble in the town of Sarny, about 185 miles (300 km) west of Kiev. Administration.
Russian forces seized full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Svyarodonetsk, weeks after one of the bloodiest battles of the war, confirming Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month. https://t.co/3m2NjDNXlm pic.twitter.com/UqrYlcHVgA
— Reuters (@Reuters) 26 June 2022
Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West maintain that the Russian military has committed war crimes against civilians.
Seeking to tighten the noose on Russia, US President Joe Biden and other group of seven leaders attending a summit in Germany from Sunday will agree an import ban on new gold from Russia, a person familiar with the matter said. The source told Reuters.
‘It was scary’
In the Ukrainian-held Donbass town of Pokrovsk, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair from Lisichansk, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from frontline areas.
“Lysychansk, it was a scary one, last week. Yesterday we couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “I already told my husband that if I die, please bury me behind the house.”
As Europe’s largest land conflict entered its fifth month since World War II, Russian missiles also rained down on the western, northern and southern parts of the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops to the border on February 24, starting a conflict that killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also led to an energy and food crisis that is rocking the global economy.
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Since Russian forces were defeated in an attack on the capital Kyiv in March, it shifted its focus to the Donbass, an eastern region made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Svyarodonetsk and Lisichansk were the last major Ukrainian strongholds in Luhansk.
The Russians have crossed the river by force in recent days and are moving towards Lysichansk, threatening to encircle Ukrainians in the area.
The capture of Svierodonetsk can be seen by Russia as a retaliation for its switch from its initial, unsuccessful attempt of “lightning warfare” to a relentless, grinding offensive using large-scale artillery in the east.
Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has supported the insurgency since 2014, are independent countries. It demands that Ukraine hand over the entire territory of the two provinces to the separatist administration.
The Ukrainian authorities never expected to capture Svyarodonetsk, but demanded a price high enough to eliminate Russian forces.
Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzny wrote on the Telegram app that the newly arrived, advanced HIMARS rocket systems supplied by the US were now deployed and hitting targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. read more
Asked about a possible counterattack in the south, Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, told Reuters that Ukraine should start seeing results “from August”.
Russian missiles also struck elsewhere overnight. “48 cruise missiles. At night. All over Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Podolik, adviser to the President of Ukraine, on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, creating panic.”
The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine said six missiles were fired from the Black Sea at a base near the border with Poland. Four hit the target but two were destroyed.
The war has had a huge impact on the global economy and European security, raising gas, oil and food prices, prompting the European Union to reduce reliance on Russian energy, and prompting Finland and Sweden to take NATO membership. has been done.
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