The fighting with Russian forces has reached the district of Severodonetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine where the situation is very difficult, the governor of the district said today.
Russian troops have advanced so that they are close enough to be able to hit Severodonetsk with mortars, Sherhiy Gaidai wrote on the Telegram app, adding that the city is simply being destroyed.
He accused the Russian military of constantly[/I] bombing the city using multiple Smertch and Tornado rocket launchers, among others. According to him, the bombs also target the Azot factory, where civilians have taken refuge in anti-aircraft shelters.
The situation in the city is very difficult. Already yesterday there was fighting in the periphery of Severodonetsk, said Gaidai, who estimated that the coming week would be decisive.
Severodonetsk, a city of about 100,000 people before the war, has been under pressure from Russian troops and pro-Russian separatist fighters for weeks. On May 6, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk announced that the city was almost surrounded
Dozens of civilians have been killed there by shelling in recent weeks, according to the Athens and Macedonian News Agency.
Severodonetsk is one of the important cities in this region that is still under Ukrainian control, as is the city of Lysychank.
They are located at least 80 km east of Kramatorsk, which has become the administrative center of Ukrainian Donbass since Moscow-backed separatists seized the eastern part of this large coal basin in 2014.
Earlier Reuters reported, citing the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, that Ukraine is fighting to maintain control over a critical highway in the city of Severodonets.
Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanik told a news conference that there are alternative routes to supply Ukrainian units in Severodonetsk, which is surrounded on three sides by Russian forces.
Motuzyanik said that Russia's goal is to surround the Ukrainian units in the city from all sides, as well as in neighboring Lysychansk.
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