According to the mayor of Sievierodonetsk, a vital city in war-torn Ukraine where Russian soldiers have increased their attack, 10,000 inhabitants are stuck in the city and escape is “difficult.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the sievierodonetsk fight, which has been going for days, “one of the most difficult” since the conflict began.
“This is a terrible, grueling combat, maybe one of the most severe in the war.” The center of the conflict in Donbas remains Sievierodonetsk…Largely, it is where the fate of our Donbas is being determined today.”
The war between Russia and Ukraine is already in its fourth month, and the combat has shifted to Sievierodonetsk, one of the final places of Luhansk, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas. For the last eight years, rebels supported by Russia have controlled sections of the Donbas area.
“Ukrainian forces continue to defend the industrial zone and nearby regions in Sievierodonetsk, and the situation is challenging but manageable,” Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk stated, “but evacuating 10,000 surviving people is now impossible.”
Russian soldiers are destroying “anything that may be used for defense” in Sievierodonetsk, according to a provincial Ukrainian official, who said that western long-range artillery would allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces and seize Severodonetsk in days. “Our special forces can clean up the city in two to three days once we have long-range artillery to conduct duels with Russian artillery,” Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaida stated in an interview posted on his official social media accounts.
As part of its plans to conquer a swath of eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s soldiers are focussing on the strategically crucial industrial region. Ukraine has been reminded of the horrors of Mariupol, a port city that surrendered to Russia after weeks of combat.
Meanwhile, the US and the UK have stated that they will provide Kyiv with long-range precision artillery systems, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s concerns.
