It had been foreseeable for weeks that the moment would come when the Ukrainian troops would have to leave Severodonetsk.
They are faced there with quantitatively many times superior attackers.
Russian forces have concentrated their actions in the area around the city, as the Kremlin wants to book as a symbolic success the complete capture of the small part of Luhansk Oblast that is still under Ukrainian control.
This goal has not yet been achieved.
If the invaders continue to advance so slowly, it will be weeks before Russian propaganda can cynically announce the “liberation” of the entire “Luhansk People's Republic”.
Severodonetsk was completely destroyed, the Ukrainian troops suffered heavy losses in their defensive struggle.
Despite the retreat that had now been ordered, they were not pointless.
By inflicting what are believed to be equally high casualties to the invading army there for weeks, the defenders have reduced the likelihood that more Ukrainian cities will suffer such a fate.
The many thousands of lives that were violently ended, as well as the physical and psychological consequences of the street fighting for soldiers on both sides, make Severodonetsk another crying indictment against the war criminal gang in the Kremlin that started this war.