Today, Monday, the Russian army continues to strike the Ukrainian military infrastructure and liberate the Donbass lands in eastern Ukraine, as part of its special military operation to liberate Donbass, while Ukraine continues to resist, backed by Western powers through material support and military equipment.
In the latest development, Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces blew up a bridge linking the street-stricken Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk to another city across the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation in Severodonetsk, which has become the focus of the battle for control of the Donbass industrial region in the east, consisting of Lugansk and Donetsk, as grave.
For its part, Moscow confirmed on Sunday that it had “destroyed a large warehouse” in western Ukraine for weapons sent from Western countries, at a time when fierce battles are taking place in Severodonetsk in the east of the country, where it appears that Ukrainian forces are facing difficulties in confronting the Russians.
“The Kalibr missiles were launched from the sea (…) near Chortkev destroyed a large warehouse of anti-tank missile systems, man-portable air defense systems and missiles supplied by the United States and European countries to the Kyiv system,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Russian army did not specify the timing of this strike, but the Ukrainian authorities in this small town in the west of the country announced that on Saturday evening it had wounded at least 22 people, including civilians, and damaged a military site.
Commenting on this, President Zelensky said in his evening video message on Sunday that “there was no tactical or strategic target for this strike, as is the case in the vast majority of other Russian strikes, describing the strike as” just terrorism.”
In the east, the Ukrainian General Staff announced on Sunday morning that Russian forces were launching attacks on Severodonetsk “without achieving success,” noting that Ukrainian soldiers repulsed the Moscow army near Vrobivka, Mykolaivka and Vasevka.
Control of Severodonetsk opens the way for Moscow to another major city, Kramatorsk, in the Donbass Basin, a region that is predominantly Russian-speaking and that Russia wants to fully control. Pro-Russian separatists have controlled parts of this mining-rich region since 2014.
“The situation in Severodonetsk is very difficult,” Lugansk region governor Sergey Gaidai said via Telegram. He added that the Russian forces want to “completely close the city” and prevent any passage of men and ammunition, pointing out that he fears that the enemy will use “all its precautions to seize the city” within 48 hours.
In the south, in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian presidency said that “the Russians (reinforce) their efforts to destroy basic infrastructure.”
At the other end of the front line, in Mykolaiv, a major port on the estuary of the Dnieper River in the south, the Russian advance has stalled on the outskirts of the city, according to a field team of AFP correspondents.
The Ukrainian Operations Command stated that the Russian forces fired missiles at the outskirts of this city, which are “continuous fire aimed at psychologically putting pressure on the civilian population.”
