Fierce battles in eastern Ukraine and Russian forces threaten Severodonetsk

Fierce battles are taking place in eastern Ukraine for control of the Donbass region, as Russian forces threaten the cities of Severodonetsk and its neighbor Lyschansk, after Moscow declared control of the strategic town of Lyman.

And the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region, Sergey Gaidai, announced that "the situation is getting worse in Lyschansk."

Recalling the destruction of a cinema and damage to 22 buildings, Gaidai explained that the city had seen a "difficult day yesterday."

More than three months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call Saturday to enter into "serious direct negotiations" with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, and to release 2,500 Ukrainian fighters. They were holed up in the Azovstal industrial complex in Mariupol (southeast) and surrendered to the Russian forces.

For his part, Putin stressed, according to the Kremlin, that Russia remains "open to resuming dialogue" with Kyiv to settle the armed conflict, while peace negotiations with Ukraine have been suspended since March.

On the military front, the Russian forces are tightening the cordon on the Donbass region, especially around Severodonetsk, where "the enemy launched offensive operations", according to a report issued on Sunday by the Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army.

And on Saturday evening, the governor of Lugansk announced that "Russia is using all its means to control Severodonetsk or prevent any contact between the region and Ukraine."

He acknowledged that "next week will be very difficult," but considered that the Russian forces "will not be able to achieve everything they are planning in the near future."

For his part, the mayor of Severodonetsk Oleksandr Stryuk confirmed that "the Russians have come up with many means to storm the city, but they cannot do it so far," adding, "We believe that the city will resist."

He pointed to the worsening health situation in the city, which had a population of 100,000 people before the war.

On Saturday evening, he wrote on Telegram that the "continuous bombing" makes it difficult to deliver supplies to the city, especially drinking water, while electricity has been cut off for more than two weeks, adding that the "Humanitarian Aid Center" has suspended its activity.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement that its forces had destroyed, using long-range and high-precision missiles, an important arsenal of the Ukrainian army in the Dnipro region (southeast).

According to the statement, during the past 24 hours, Russia targeted a Ukrainian air defense system near Mykolaiv, in the Donetsk region, a radar station near Kharkiv and five ammunition depots near Severodonetsk, with missiles of the same type.

Russia and its separatist forces shifted their main focus to encircling Lysichansk and Severodonetsk, to consolidate their control over the Donbass region.

Sergey Gaidai had previously said that "the Russian army is simply destroying Severodonetsk," noting that he entered the outskirts of the city, where he suffered "heavy losses", while Ukrainian forces continue their attempts to expel the Russians from a hotel.

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