Intense fighting continued Wednesday in the strategic city of Severodonetsk, the governor of this region of Donbass evoking a possible withdrawal of Ukrainian forces, while the heads of Russian and Turkish diplomats discussed the unblocking of grain exports from the country.

“It may be necessary to withdraw” from Severodonetsk, said Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the Lugansk region, on Wednesday on the Ukrainian channel

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Tuesday evening, he had already indicated that holding this city was “mission impossible”, even if the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense still affirmed Wednesday morning that the Ukrainian forces “resist attacks” Russian.

The evolution of the Battle of Severodonetsk in pictures.


Directed by:

Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • Since the fall on May 20 of the port of Mariupol, on the Sea of ​​Azov, the Russians have been concentrating their offensive on this town of Severodonetsk at the western limit of the Lugansk region.

  • They aim to take full control of Donbass, already partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

  • After advances, the situation "worsened" for Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk, a key city in the east of the country, the regional governor announced on Monday morning.

  • According to him, the bombardments have further intensified on Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk, a neighboring city located on “the heights” and strategic to “hold the line of defense.

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  • The Russians are "destroying everything with their usual scorched earth tactic" so that "there is nothing left to defend", he charged.

  • "The residential areas of Severodonetsk have been completely liberated," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a rare televised briefing, adding that "the takeover of its industrial zone and neighboring localities continues".

  • The mayor, Oleksandre Striouk, for his part told the Unian news agency that "the situation was changing every hour" and that "intense street fighting" was underway, as well as an "artillery duel ".

  • In Severodonetsk, "about 800 civilians" have taken refuge in a chemical plant, said Tuesday the American lawyer of the Ukrainian tycoon Dmytro Firtach, owner of the site.

    "Among these 800 civilians are about 200 of the plant's 3,000 employees and about 600 residents of Severodonetsk."

  • The cities of Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk, separated by a river, constitute the last agglomeration still under Ukrainian control in the Lugansk region.

  • Their capture would open the road to Kramatorsk, a large city in the Donetsk region, to the Russians.

  • There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict.

    For the city of Mariupol (southeast), which fell in May after a terrible siege, the Ukrainian authorities evoke a balance sheet of around 20,000 dead.

  • On the military level, Western military sources mention 12,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers killed.

    Ukrainian forces are losing between 60 and 100 soldiers every day in combat, President Zelensky told US news outlet

    Newsmax

    last week , without providing an overall total.

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