Russia is advancing in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv forces may withdraw from the last enclave in Luhansk

Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region, which is now under near-total Russian control, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces may have to withdraw from the last pocket of resistance there to avoid being captured.

In a message via the Telegram app, he added that Russian forces entered Severodonetsk, the largest Ukrainian-controlled city in the eastern Donbass region, where Moscow's biggest advance in weeks has changed the course of the three-month-old war.

Russia is trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk, where Gaidai previously said 90% of its buildings were destroyed, and in Lysekhansk on the other side of the river.

"The Russians will not be able to control the Luhansk region in the coming days, as analysts expected," Gaidai said on Telegram, referring to the two semi-besieged cities.

"We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. But it is possible to retreat in order to avoid being encircled," he added.

He said fighting continued on the outskirts of Severodonetsk, but evacuations were still possible, even though the main exit route "is under fire".

Moscow's separatist agents said they now control Lyman, a major railway hub.

Ukrainian officials said Russia had captured most of the city, but added that Ukrainian forces were blocking the advance to Sloviansk, a city half an hour's drive from Lyman to the southwest.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Aristovich said last night that the well-organized attack on Lyman showed that the Moscow army, which was expelled from the capital Kyiv in March, was improving its tactics and operations.

The Ukrainian withdrawal may bring President Vladimir Putin closer to his stated goal of controlling the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in all of eastern Ukraine.

For his part, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Bloomberg TV on Friday that Putin "continues to advance in the Donbass at a heavy price for himself and the Russian army."

Russian forces gained ground in Donbass after breaching Ukrainian lines last week in the city of Popasna, south of Severodonetsk.

The British Ministry of Defense said that Russian ground forces had taken control of several villages northwest of Popasna.

Popasna, which Reuters reporters arrived in in Russian-controlled territory on Thursday, has become a scorching wasteland.

The swollen body of a man in military uniform was seen lying in a courtyard.

The Russian advance in the east follows a Ukrainian counter-offensive that pushed Putin's forces away from Kharkiv this month.

But Moscow prevented Ukrainian forces from attacking the back rows of Russian supply lines to Donbas.

On Thursday, Russian forces bombed parts of the city of Kharkiv itself for the first time in days.

Local authorities said nine people were killed.

The Kremlin denies targeting civilians.

On the diplomatic front, European Union officials said a deal could be reached by Sunday to ban Russian oil shipments by sea, which make up about 75% of the bloc's supply, but not through pipelines, a compromise to persuade Hungary to start a new round of sanctions on the EU. Russia.

In a speech last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the European Union for its reluctance to impose a ban on Russian energy imports, saying that the union funds Moscow's war efforts with one billion euros a day.

"Every day of stalling, weakness, various disputes or suggestions to 'pacify' the aggressor at the expense of the victim only means more Ukrainians are killed," he added.

In a phone call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Putin stuck to his position that the conflict-induced global food crisis could only be resolved if the West lifted sanctions.

Nehamer, who visited Russia in April, said Putin had expressed his willingness to discuss a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, but added: "Is he really ready to negotiate? That's a complicated question."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Zelensky on Friday discussed ways to liberalize grain exports.

Draghi held talks with Putin on Thursday.

"We expect more defense support from our partners," Zelensky said on Twitter later.

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