I the eastern Ukrainian city Slavyansk was subjected to powerful rocket fire by the Russian Armed Forces. Many people were killed and injured, said the mayor of the city, Vadim Lyakh, quoted by Reuters.
“At least 15 fires. Many killed and injured,” wrote in Telegram Lyakh.
Ukraine recognizes Russian successes in the battles for Lisichansk
The mayor said that this is the most massive recent shelling of the city.
According to Tetiana Ignatchenko, spokeswoman for the administration of the Donetsk region, six people were killed and fifteen wounded, reported France Press.
Meanwhile, Russia claims to have captured the strategic city of Lisichansk in eastern Ukraine. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russian troops today fully captured the last major city in the Luhansk region that was still under Ukrainian control. With this, Moscow is getting closer to achieving its declared goal – to completely take over the Ukrainian region of Donbass, the Associated Press reported.
Ukraine denies that Lisichansk is completely surrounded
Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin, that Russian troops together with local separatist militias “have established full control over the city of Lisichansk,” Russian intelligence agencies reported. Speaking about the capture of the city, Shoigu used the phrase “liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic”, referring to one of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian fighters defended Lisichansk for weeks and they were trying to prevent it from suffering the fate of neighboring Severodonetsk, which fell into Russian hands last week. Last night, a Ukrainian presidential adviser predicted that the fate of Lisichansk would likely be decided within days.
The fighters in Severodonetsk refused to surrender
Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk are the two areas that make up the Donbass region on which Russia has focused its offensive, after withdrawing its forces from northern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv in the spring.
Pro-Russian separatists have partially controlled the two regions since 2014, and Moscow has recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. On Wednesday, the Syrian government did the same, saying it recognized the “independence and sovereignty” of the two areas.
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The capture of Lisichansk will open for Russian troops the way west to the Donetsk region, where the large city of Slavyansk, which is still under Ukrainian control, has been subjected to rocket attacks several times since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
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