After weeks of encirclement by the Russians, the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk has fallen into Russian hands. It is the last city in the Luhansk region to resist the Russian advance in the east of the country. Other great places have already surrendered.
Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk reported on Saturday that Severodonetsk is “entirely in Russian hands”. According to him, it is not possible for residents of the city to flee to Ukrainian territory. They can only leave the city to travel to Russian occupied territory.
The Ukrainian withdrawal from Severodonetsk had been in the air for some time. On Friday, the region’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said there was no point in holding out any longer. “It is not logical to cling to positions that have been taken but that have been shot down just to stay there (in Severodonetsk, ed.).”
The US Institute for the Study of War also noted this week that the Russians had made “significant progress” in the battle for Severodonetsk and surrounding areas. The city has been shelled almost continuously by the Russians for the past four months.
Earlier this month, the leader of the renegade Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, reported that Russian soldiers had taken parts of the city. He said the attack lasted longer than expected.
On June 2, the Russian troops broke through further. According to the British Ministry of Defense, this was accompanied by “a heavy concentration of artillery”. The main route to the city was likely still under Ukraine control in the morning, the British Defense Ministry said at the time.
The British also said crossing a river south of Severodonetsk is of “vital” importance for Russian forces if they want to take Luhansk and shift their operation to the Donetsk region. It is not known whether the Ukrainian army still has control over that river.
The withdrawal is a psychological blow, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said that the fate of the Donetsk region will be decided through the Severodonetsk battle.
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Infrastructure would have been destroyed, residents fled
Severodonetsk was the only major city in the Luhansk region not yet completely in Russian hands. The city had been almost surrounded for some time and was under heavy shelling. According to Zelensky, Russia has destroyed all essential infrastructure in Severodonetsk.
A governor of the Luhansk region said earlier this week that Severodonetsk was not completely surrounded. But Russian bombing would make it impossible to evacuate people or get humanitarian aid into the city, the governor said.
Before the war about 100,000 people lived there, but now it would only be about 12,000. The death toll before the capture stood at about 1,500, according to Ukrainian information.
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