Russian troops on Saturday took control of Severodonetsk, one of the last strongholds in the breakaway eastern Luhansk region – although Western intelligence agencies predicted the invader’s military would soon exhaust its combat capabilities and be forced to halt its offensive.
Hundreds of civilians were believed to be trapped in underground bunkers at a chemical plant on the outskirts of the city, with the only way out through Russian-controlled territory. Shells continued to hit the facility on Saturday Kyiv Independent reported, citing regional governor Serhiy Haidai. It is estimated that between 500 and 800 people are sheltering in the underground facilities.
“The Russians completely occupied Severodonetsk, our military retreated to more prepared positions,” Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television, the BBC reported.
Before the war, Severodonetsk had about 100,000 inhabitants. Fewer than 10,000 are believed to remain in the now battered city, left in ruins by weeks of shelling. All bridges to the city were destroyed by Russian troops, along with most of the city’s infrastructure.
Ukrainian troops were ordered to leave Sevierodonetsk. EPA/OLEKSANDR RATUSHNIAK
Ukraine’s military began withdrawing from the area on Friday after suffering heavy casualties in recent weeks.
Separately, Ukrainian officials said several cities across the country were hit by a rain of Russian missiles, including an overnight airstrike launched by Russia’s ally Belarus. “According to Ukrainian defense intelligence, it was the first airstrike on Ukraine carried out directly from Belarus’ territory and Russia’s ‘provocation’ to drag Belarus into its war against Ukraine,” the Kyiv Independent said.
The missiles from Belarus hit targets across Ukraine. Russian missiles were also fired from the Black Sea off Ukraine’s southern border, hitting military installations in western Ukraine, near Lviv.
Most of Severodonetsk’s infrastructure was destroyed.EPA/OLEKSANDR RATUSHNIAK
Smoke can be seen behind the city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine.ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, separatist forces allied with the Russian army said they had moved into parts of Lysyhansk, the “twin city” of Severodonetsk across the Donetsk River and now the last city in the East Luhansk region still to resist the invasion puts. It’s an important development, as Putin has justified the invasion with claims that he’s protecting the people of Luhansk — a primarily Russian-speaking region that has been home to Kremlin-backed fighting since 2014 — from genocide.
Together with Donetsk province, it forms the area called Donbass, which Putin claimed as Russian territory at the beginning of the invasion.
Gossip on Russian Telegram channels and comments by Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar suggest the Russian military is under pressure to take control of all of Luhansk by Sunday.
Britain’s MoD said the reorganization of Ukraine’s troops came as “Russian armored units continue to make stealthy gains on the southern edge” of the area.
But those creeping advances depend almost entirely on issuing huge quantities of artillery shells and other munitions, fired at rates no military could long sustain, said a senior Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, to um discussing a hot topic The Washington Post. At the same time, Russia is suffering heavy losses in equipment and men, raising the question of how much longer it can sustain the attack.
“There will come a time when the tiny advances that Russia is making will no longer be cost-prohibitive, and they will need a longer break to regenerate their capabilities,” the official said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a recent interview, citing intelligence estimates, that Russia could only continue fighting in the “next few months”. After that, “Russia could come to a point where there is no more forward momentum because it has exhausted its resources,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Separately, Russia claimed its forces killed up to 80 Polish fighters in the Donetsk region, The Telegraph reported.
A Ukrainian soldier tends to a wounded fellow soldier during a medical evacuation on a road in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
“Up to 80 Polish mercenaries, 20 armored fighting vehicles and eight Grad multiple rocket launchers were destroyed in precision attacks on the Megatex zinc factory in Konstantinovka” in the Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry quoted it in a statement that could not be independently verified. It was not said when the strike took place.
While Ukrainian troops were leaving some areas, the country has already used US-supplied HIMARS missile systems against targets in Russian-held sectors, the country’s top general said on Saturday.
“Artillerymen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine skillfully hit specific targets – enemy military targets on our Ukrainian territory,” Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote in the Telegram app.
Friday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted a thank you to the US for the guns. “We’re thankful [The US president] and the American people for their decision to provide Ukraine with another $450 million defense assistance package,” he wrote. “This support, including additional HIMARS, is more important now than ever. Through joint efforts, we will rid the Ukrainian land of the Russian aggressor!”
With post wires