Ukraine's General Staff said on Sunday that fighting was still continuing in the strategic city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region, while Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Russian forces had taken control of the city, and Kyiv said it had begun receiving anti-ship missiles from Denmark.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on its Facebook page that the Russian forces are launching offensive operations on the city of Severodonetsk using artillery, adding that the fighting is continuing.

Sergei Gaidai, the governor of Lugansk region, said on Saturday that Russian forces had entered Severodonetsk and had taken control of a bus station and other buildings, and that they were using all means to control them, or prevent any communication between the city and Ukraine.

Gaidai added that 90% of the city's buildings were destroyed, talking about a similar fate to the city of Mariupol that Severodonetsk had received, and said that the Ukrainian forces had incurred great losses and needed long-range artillery, drones and anti-aircraft to fight the Russian drones.


tough week

The governor of Lugansk admitted that "the next week will be very difficult," but added that the Russian forces "will not be able to achieve everything they plan in the near future."

"The Russians have come up with many means to storm the city, but they can't do it yet," said Oleksandr Stryuk, the mayor of Severodonetsk, adding, "We believe that the city will resist." Ukraine on February 24.

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

On the other hand, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said yesterday evening, Saturday, that Russian forces had fully taken control of the city of Severodonetsk.

And 60 km west of Severodonetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said yesterday, Saturday, that it had taken control of the city of Lyman, which constitutes a crossing towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two of the largest cities in the Donbass region, consisting of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, the bulk of which is controlled by Russian forces and separatist forces loyal to them. .

Lyman is a major railway hub, opening the way to the cities of Loviansk and Kramatorsk, which are still under the control of Ukrainian forces.

Russia said on Saturday that it was bombing with missiles the command centers of the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut and Soledar, and the two cities are located on a vital road linking Lysechansk and Severodonetsk.

Ukrainian soldiers take up positions near the city of Bakhmut in the Donbass region to repel the advance of Russian (European) forces

After the failure of the Russian forces' attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv and Kharkiv - the country's second largest city - at the beginning of the war, Moscow focused its attack on eastern Ukraine with the declared aim of controlling the mining-rich Donbass region, which has been partially controlled since 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists, who declared two republics. Independent of Ukraine, which Russia recognized days before the start of the current war.

Harpoon missiles

In a related context, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday that his country has started receiving "Harpon" anti-ship missiles from Denmark, and "Howitzers" self-propelled guns from the United States, which will support its forces facing the Russian invasion, As he put it.

Minister Reznikov said that the Harpoon anti-ship missiles will operate alongside the Ukrainian "Nepton" missiles to defend the country's coasts, including the port of Odessa in southwestern Ukraine.

He added that the Harpoon missile supplies came as a result of cooperation between several countries, noting that the deliveries from Denmark were carried out with the participation of British friends, as he put it.

And US media reported, quoting US officials, that the administration of President Joe Biden was preparing to provide Ukraine with modern systems of long-range launchers, MLRS, with a range of 300 km.

Officials note that the Biden administration is inclined to provide these systems to Ukraine as part of the broader package of US military aid that may be announced next week.

It is noteworthy that rocket launchers have become at the top of the weapons that Ukraine requests from the United States, with the intensification of battles between the Russian and Ukrainian armies in the Donbass region.

Rocket launchers such as the "MLRS" system have become on top of the weapons that Ukraine requests from the West (Anatolia)

And in view of the successive shipments of heavy weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine to counter the Russian attack, Moscow warned yesterday of the danger of "continuing to flood Ukraine with Western weapons", saying that this contributes to "further destabilization of the situation and exacerbation of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine."

Triple call

On the political front, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release 2,500 Ukrainian fighters captured by Russia at the Azovstal steel complex in the southeastern city of Mariupol.

The German chancellor's office stated that Schulz and Macron had asked, during a phone call with Putin, to hold serious and direct negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Moscow denies the accusations leveled against it by Kyiv of blockading the ports of the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea.