“The Russians controlled about 70 percent of the city, but have been pushed back in the past two days. The city is divided in two. They are afraid to move freely around the city,” writes Luhansk governor Sergei Gaidai. on Telegram. He also said that the Ukrainian armed forces had captured eight Russian soldiers.
The Luhansk region has been partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Severodonetsk is the administrative capital of the Ukrainian part.
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‘regroup’
Yesterday, the Russian army reported that Ukrainian military units had withdrawn from Severodonetsk. But Mayor Oleksandr Strioek said Ukrainian troops were fighting to retake the city.
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“Our soldiers have managed to regroup, build a defense line. We are currently doing whatever it takes to restore total control of the city,” he said in an interview broadcast on Telegram yesterday.
Explosions in and around Kiev
Powerful explosions were heard and seen in the Ukrainian capital Kiev this morning, a witness told the international news agency Reuters. Smoke was visible in the city after the explosions. Sirens have previously gone off in much of Ukraine, including the Kiev region.
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“Multiple explosions in different parts of the city. Services are working to put out the fire. There have been no deaths from rocket attacks on the infrastructure. One injured person has been hospitalized,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Telegram shortly after attacks in Kiev and other cities air raid siren sounded.
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Putin wants to destroy western weapons
Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that his country will do everything it can to destroy heavy artillery installations supplied by the West. If such installations are delivered, “we will strike those targets that we have not hit yet,” Putin said in an interview with Russian state television.
US President Joe Biden decided last week that the US will provide the Ukrainian military with “more advanced missile systems and ammunition”. The president cited “Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, high-power artillery and precision missile systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters and ammunition”.
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More than 2,500 missiles on Ukraine already
Since the war started on February 24, Russia has fired more than 2,500 missiles at Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said yesterday during a video speech in which he accused the Russians of massive destruction of cultural monuments, churches and other religious sites in his country.
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