The fight for control of the Donbass region, eastern Ukraine, continues today as Russia tightens its siege on the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
The governor of the Lugansk region Sergiy Gaiday said on the messaging app Telegram that the situation in Lysychansk is going “incredibly bad”. “Russian shells hit a residential building, killing one woman and sending four people to the hospital,” he said. Gaiday describes the fighting taking place on every street of the city.
Meanwhile, on the east bank of the Donets River, Russian forces “conducted a series of offensive operations against the city of Severodonetsk”, according to the General Staff of Ukraine.
Tanks of pro-Russian forces on a street in the Lugansk region on May 26. Image: Reuters.
After failing to control the Ukrainian capital Kiev in the early stages of the operation, Russian forces shifted their focus to the eastern Donbass region.
“The current situation is very difficult, especially in areas of the region Donbass and Kharkivwhere the Russian military is trying to get at least some result,” President Zelensky said in his daily speech on the night of May 28.
Before that, the Ministry of Defense Russia announced that the city of Lyman has been completely liberated by Ukrainian forces from Ukrainian nationalists.
Lyman, located in northern Donetsk Oblast, is a regional rail hub and a strategic stronghold for Moscow’s efforts to encircle Severodonestk, one of the major cities Kiev still controls in Lugansk province in the Donbass region.
Russian media quoted a Lugansk provincial police official as saying that the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk were “under siege”. However, Governor Gaiday insisted “Severodonetsk is not completely divided”. “There is still the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to the city,” he told Ukrainian television.
Governor Gaiday said Russian forces had entered the Myr hotel on the northern edge of Sievierodonetsk. “They can’t get any deeper into the city and are suffering casualties, but we can’t push them out of the hotel at the moment,” he said.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington said the Russians had not yet been able to encircle the city and that the Ukrainian defenders had inflicted “significant casualties” on them.
Even so, Ukrainian forces also suffered serious losses, according to a report from the American research institute.
Analysts say that Russia’s focus on targeting Sievierodonetsk has forced it to draw resources from other battlefields and as a result Moscow has made little progress elsewhere.
President Zelensky visited Kharkov on May 29. Image: Reuters.
More than three months after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to hold “serious face-to-face negotiations”.
In an 80-minute phone conversation with the Russian leader on May 28, the two European leaders also asked for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
President Zelensky today visited Ukrainian forces on the front lines in the Kharkov region, northeast of the country. The visit marked the first time Mr Zelensky appeared outside the Kiev area since Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine 24/2.
In a video posted by the Office of the President of Ukraine on Telegram, Zelensky wears a bulletproof vest to inspect badly damaged buildings in Kharkov and the surrounding area.
“2,229 buildings have been destroyed in Kharkov and in the region. We will restore, rebuild and bring life back,” reads an article posted by the Office of the President of Ukraine.
In the video, Ukrainian soldiers also show President Zelensky destroyed trucks on the side of a road through a field. “You risked your lives for all of us and for our country,” President Zelensky told the soldiers.
Earlier, President Zelensky had expressed hope that Ukraine’s allies would provide much-needed weapons to the country, adding that he expected “good news” in the next few days.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister said that it has begun receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled guns from the US.
Adviser to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak has repeated calls for Washington to deliver long-range multi-role missile launchers to Kiev. US officials say they are reviewing the proposal and will make a decision in the coming days.
The momentum of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine after three months of hostilities. Graphics: Washington Post.
In another development, the Ukrainian military command said on May 29 that its forces were counter-attacking in the area south of Kherson, which is largely controlled by Russia.
They say the Ukrainian army repelled the Russian forces and forced them to huddle in defense near the Pivdennyi Buh river after a counterattack the previous day in three villages bordering the neighboring Mykolaiv region.
The regional government said residential areas of the city of Mykolaiv were shelled this morning, killing one civilian and injuring at least six.
Russia has not commented on this information.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has so far recorded more than 6.7 million Ukrainians leaving the country after Russia launched a military operation on February 24.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimated the fighting in Ukraine left at least 4,031 civilians dead and 4,735 injured, but warned the actual number could be higher.
Vu Hoang (Follow AFP, Reuters)
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