ZAPORIZHZHIA – Lysychansk, the city overlooking a low hill Severodonetsk, taken and now inhabited by the Russians, is surrounded. The new prey of Lugansk, another industrial city, is being treated by the invading troops as they have already done with Mariupolcon Kharkhiv, with the twin city: bombing from the ground and from the sky until the Ukrainian soldiers leave it. The new strategy of the Home Armed Forces – letting the enemy troops advance a little, just a little, to save men and weapons, reposition themselves and try the counter-offensive with fresh units and US Himars rocket launchers finally available, suggests that Lysychansk will not resist as much as the previous ones.
The dramatic appeal of the Lugansk governor
The Russian troops are on all four sides, in particular from the South. The other city overlooking the Siversky Donets River has several factories inside and in each of them the Ukrainian military has sheltered. The regional governor, and military officer, Sergei Gaidai, he relayed the message with all the megaphones he owns: “Civilians, try to get out, leave town.” The many local micro-organizations, trying to approach through the last available road, which passes through Silversk, risk their cars and their lives daily to take away fifteen elderly people at a time.
Donbass, the Ukrainian army withdraws from Severodonetsk
by our correspondent Corrado Zunino
During the night the Russian army hit the city of hard Slovak, which for now are unable to take once again held back by a stream. Together with Bakhmut, which has the “zero front” on its periphery, ea Kramatorsk, Slovak it represents the last border line to stop the invaders from taking West Lugansk. With the last few blows, the power line collapsed.
Displaced civilians
Seen on the spot, there has never been a general retreat, nor a scrambled escape. Some Ukrainian soldiers were captured, but most of them left the fire areas on foot or by swimming. TO Severodonetsk the Chechens found no enemies: “Our soldiers have all come away”, said Gaidai, adding a curious: “With all their money”. The Russian military, as they did in all the conquered settlements, took up residence in the few houses left standing, displacing the eight thousand civilians left over from the occupied territories of Lugansk. The 568 assaulted in the Azot factory seem to have remained there for now: they don’t want to
Donbass, Lugansk are lost but Ukraine is preparing the counter-offensive
by Gianluca Di Feo
Leave.
The arrival of the Russians
On the other hand, even in the rest of Lugansk, residents are starting to live with the possibility of the Russians arriving. We listened to artisans, small businessmen, retirees who remained and all have a priority: “Let the bombing stop”. In this land of Ukraine so eastern, so impoverished, where we have been fighting for eight years and where working relationships with Russia and affective and family relationships are so intertwined, the few remaining residents prefer to surrender themselves to the Russians rather than continue to be target of their artillery. In the Donbass the general sentiment is different from the rest of Ukraine.
The colonel general Gennady Zhidkosays the Institute for War Studies, a North American foundation, has become the commander of military operations in Ukraine, but there are problems in recruiting new soldiers, including reservists, for the Donbass: the southern command has had to block the licenses.