Battles are still continuing in eastern Ukraine, turning into a kind of attrition for the Russian and Ukrainian forces alike, despite the first advance and its control over more towns.
On the 121st day of the military operation launched by Moscow on Ukrainian territory, the Russians tightened their siege of the Ukrainian resistance enclave in Donbass around the strategic industrial cities of Lysechansk and Severodonetsk located in the Lugansk region.
main crossing
These two cities are a key crossing point for the Russians in their plan to take control of Donbass, a Russian-speaking basin that has been partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
On Thursday, Lugansk Governor Sergey Gaidai announced that Russian forces had significantly increased their attacks to besiege the Ukrainian forces.
It also announced its capture of the towns of Lossotivka and Ray-Oleksandrievka, a few kilometers from Lyschansk, in addition to its attack on Sirotini, near Severodonetsk.
Ukrainian forces in Lugansk (archive – AFP)
Useless
On the other hand, the representative of the pro-Russian separatists Andrei Maruchko stressed that the Ukrainian resistance in Lysekhansk and Severodonetsk is “useless”.
“At the pace with which our soldiers are advancing, all the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic will be liberated very soon,” he told AFP in a video call.
It is noteworthy that Russia, which launched in late March the second phase of its military operation on Ukrainian territory, seeks to control the entire Donbass Basin, after separatists took control of some of its parts in 2014, with the aim of opening a land corridor linking the east to the Crimea, which it annexed to its territory with the same general.
