Russian and Ukrainian Troops Have a Great Battle on the Outskirts of Sievierodonetsk

KIEV – Troops Ukraine and Russia fought fiercely on Monday (30/5/2022) on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the last city still held by Kiev in the Luhansk province of Ukraine. The region has also been the focus of Moscow’s offensive in the east of the country.

As Reuters reports, Russian shelling has left most of the city in ruins, but Ukrainian defenses have slowed the broader Russian campaign across the Donbas region.

Baca: Kiev Intel: Russian Troops in Ukraine Will Run Out in January 2023

The governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops had advanced to the southeastern and northeastern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk. “They use the same tactics over and over again. They fired for several hours – for three, four, five hours – in a row and then attacked,” Gaidai said.

“Those who attack will die. Then shooting and attacks followed again, and so on until they broke through somewhere.”

He said that with rising temperatures, there was a “terrible smell of death” on the outskirts of the city. “But Ukrainian forces have pushed the Russians out of the village of Toshkivka to the south,” he said. This could potentially frustrate Moscow’s push to encircle the area.

Baca: Vladimir Putin: Russia is ready to resume dialogue with Kiev

After failing to capture the capital Kiev in March, Russia says the focus of what it calls a “special military operation” is now on capturing the entire Donbas region, which consists of two provinces, Luhansk and Donetsk, which Moscow claims on behalf of its separatist proxies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that the “freedom” of Donbas was an “unconditional priority.”

–