Ukraine war.. dead in explosions in a Russian border city, and Kiev fears the fall of the last city of Luhansk

Russian media published footage that it said showed separatist forces entering the Ukrainian city of Lysekhansk.

Meanwhile, a Russian local governor announced that at least 3 people were killed and dozens of apartment buildings were damaged in explosions in the city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine.

The Russian governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that several explosions occurred in the city - in the early hours of Sunday morning - and that 11 residential buildings and 39 private homes were damaged, of which 5 were completely destroyed.

Gladkov added that the authorities are investigating the causes of the accident, and continued, "It is assumed that the air defense system is working."

For its part, the Ukrainian military said that one of the air defense missiles of the Russian forces exploded in Belgorod, setting fire to private homes.

Since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine on February 24, Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of launching several attacks on Belgorod and other border areas, but Kyiv denies responsibility for those attacks.

Battle of Lyschansk

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leadership denied the fall of Lyschansk or its complete encirclement by Russian forces and Moscow-backed separatists, but acknowledged that this possibility became realistic with the advance of the attacking forces.

Russian media published footage that it said showed the separatists entering Lyschansk, waving flags, and celebrating them, after the separatists announced yesterday that they were encircling the city.

But a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard, Ruslan Mozychuk, said that fierce battles were taking place in the vicinity of Lysichansk, adding, "Fortunately, the city is not besieged and is under the control of the army."

Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Donbas region, eastern Ukraine, had reported that several fires continued to erupt inside Lyschansk and a number of nearby villages due to the continuous Russian bombing of the city.

And Ukrainian military sources confirmed that the Russian forces brought reinforcements to the vicinity of the city.

For his part, Oleksiy Aristovich, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, confirmed that the Russian forces had recently crossed the Seversky Donets River and were advancing towards Lyschansk from the north.

"This is really a threat," Aristovich said. "We'll see. I don't rule out any of the several outcomes here. Things will become clearer in a day or two."

However, the Ukrainian advisor saw that the Russian forces' seizure of Lyschansk would cause them strategic complications because they would have to distribute their capabilities and personnel to 6 large cities in the Donbass region.

Lychansk, the last major city still outside Russian control, is in Luhansk, one of the two Donbass districts in eastern Ukraine that Moscow seeks to fully control.

The city, with a pre-war population of about 100,000, is a twin of Severodonetsk, which was recently captured by Russian forces after a weeks-long battle.

The capture of Lysechansk would allow the Russian army to advance towards Sloviansk (about 60 km to the west) and Kramatorsk, two other large Donbass cities located in Donetsk Province.

Training civilians to carry weapons in the city of Lviv (European)

Alert in Lviv

In other developments away from this front, Andrey Sadovy, the mayor of Lviv in western Ukraine, said the city was preparing for a possible attack from Belarus.

Sadovy held a meeting of the military and civilian authorities during which a plan for the defense of the city and the forces and capabilities at its disposal were discussed.

The mayor of Lviv announced the establishment of a defense headquarters in each district of the city, and the conduct of additional training for volunteers in the national defense formations.

This comes after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced yesterday that he had thwarted missile attacks by Ukrainian forces on military facilities in his country a few days ago, and said he had ordered the army to target hostile decision-making centers.

Lukashenko added that Russia and Belarus should remain ready to confront the "hostile actions" of the West, stressing that he does not want war with Ukraine and that there are no Belarusian soldiers inside its territory.