Russia on Saturday launched its newest offensive on Lysyhansk, twin metropolis of Severodonetsk, the ultimate outpost for the occupation of Lugansk in jap Ukraine, the place fierce combating is raging.
The Russian-backed separatists claimed on Saturday that they had “utterly” surrounded Lysychansk, though the Ukrainian military instantly denied this and mentioned it was conserving the jap metropolis below its management, which had become a bloody battlefield.
“At present the Lugansk Individuals’s Militia (separatist military) and the Russian armed forces occupied the final strategically excessive positions, which permits us to state that town of Lysyhansk is totally surrounded,” a consultant of the Lugansk separatist military Andrei Marochko was quoted as saying by the Russian company TASS .
In the meantime, Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov, who’s combating for Russia, mentioned, in response to the Russian information company Interfax, that “allied unity is already on the coronary heart of Lysyhansk.”
Destruction within the metropolis of Lysychansk besieged by Russian troops. Picture: AFP
“Lysychansk is ours! Allied models are already within the central a part of town,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, specifying that town is being “cleansed” of Ukrainian models and mines.
“Our fighters use new strategies to assault town districts, which supplies glorious outcomes,” he boasted.
Kyiv denial
Nevertheless, this report it was instantly denied by the Ukrainian military.
“The combating for Lysychansk is intense. Thankfully, town just isn’t surrounded and is below the management of the Ukrainian military,” mentioned Ukrainian Nationwide Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk.
The advance of Russian troops into jap Ukraine. Picture: AFP
Lysychansk it the final main metropolis within the Lugansk area managed by the Ukrainian navy.
Its twin metropolis, Severodonetsk, from which it’s separated by a river, fell to the Russians final week after Ukrainian troops withdrew after weeks of combating.
The seize of Lysychansk would enable Russian troops to advance in direction of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two different essential cities within the Donbass industrial area. who desires to utterly conquer Moscow.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ruslan Muzychuk acknowledged that fierce combating is happening close to Lysychansk.
“As follows from the studies of the Basic Workers, in the previous few days the state of affairs has been harder in Lysyhansk Oblast, Bakhmutsk Oblast and Kharkov Oblast. In Sloviansk, the enemy is making an attempt to conduct offensive operations so as to enhance their tactical place,” the soldier added.
menace within the south
On the identical time there’s one main menace of rocket and artillery hearth in southern areas and from Northern Ukraine, together with the border areas of the Sumy and Chernihiv areas.
Ukrainian troops on a tank within the Lysyhansk area of jap Ukraine. Picture: AFP
Within the Sumy area in north-eastern Ukraine, round 270 rockets of assorted calibers have been fired within the final 24 hours, regional governor Dmytro Zhivytsky reported, in response to Ukrainian media studies.
A 64-year-old lady was injured within the assaults within the Shalyginsk space. “There’s additionally harm to infrastructure: civilian housing, farms, energy grids and a water tower,” the governor defined.
Muzychuk additionally mentioned each the Nationwide Police and Nationwide Guard are taking steps to strengthen Ukraine’s border areas, together with components of the border with Moscow’s ally Belarus.
“Within the attacked villages, non-public homes are step by step burning. With such a excessive density of fireside, we solely have time to evacuate the wounded. Fires get away in a number of locations on the identical time. We hardly have time to place them out as a result of they preserve erupting, for instance in Lysychansk,” admitted Lugansk governor Sergei Gaidai on Telegram.
The official describes the state of affairs in Lysychansk and the encompassing space: “On the final day, the occupiers opened hearth with all kinds of accessible weapons,” Gaidai added, reporting that Russian forces are shelling town of Lysychansk to carry down the final stronghold of the resistance within the jap province of Ukraine.
Supply: ANSA and AFP
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