On Saturday, Russian-backed soldiers intensified their attack on Lysychansk, a city in Ukraine, claiming to have “totally” encircled the last holdout in the Luhansk area.
The entire Luhansk region, which with with Donetsk makes up the eastern Donbas region, could fall under Russian control if Lysychansk falls, giving Vladimir Putin yet another tactical victory.
The Luhansk Popular Militia and Russian forces today took the remaining key heights, allowing us to confirm that Lysychansk is entirely encircled, according to Andrei Marotchko, a spokesperson for the forces supported by Russia.
The assertions couldn’t be independently verified by The Guardian. The national guard of Ukraine’s spokesperson, Ruslan Muzychuk, said on Saturday that although Lysychansk’s position had been the most challenging of all the fronts, the city itself was not surrounded and was under Ukrainian control.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has shifted to Lysychansk after last week’s destruction of its twin city, Sievierodonetsk. For weeks, it has been continuously subjected to airstrikes and artillery barrages from Russia.
On Saturday, Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk area, posted on the Telegram messaging service, saying, “Private residences in attacked communities are burning down one by one.” “We only have time to shelter the wounded with such a heavy shelling density. there are multiple simultaneous fires. To put out the large-scale fires in Lysychansk, we hardly have time.
According to reports, the occupants are using heavy weaponry to destroy one house after another while the residents are sheltering in their basements virtually constantly.
The Russian defense ministry claimed that its forces had recently taken control of an oil refinery in Lysychansk, but Haidai said on Friday that the battle for the plant was still going on.