Ukraine: Kreminna, city at the heart of the fighting in the Donbass
Ukrainian soldiers during battles against Russian forces in the Donetsk region, December 23, 2022. © Libkos / AP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
In Ukraine, no end-of-year truce.
Fierce fighting continues in the Bakhmout region, where Ukrainians and Russians are fighting over the villages on the outskirts of the city, in particular Kreminna, a city in the Luhansk region, where after long months of fighting, the Ukrainians are recovering ground.
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With our correspondent in Kiev
,
Stéphane Siohan
Since the Ukrainian victories in the fall, the Donbass front, in eastern Ukraine, can be summed up in two dynamics: on the one hand, the Russian army is trying to take control of the city of Bakhmout, in order to to secure a symbolic victory.
In recent months, the city has become the site of massive casualties on both sides, due to grueling trench warfare, heavy artillery duels and frontal assaults.
While Russian troops have claimed the capture of villages and areas at the very end of the city, Ukrainian forces seem to control Bakhmout and part of its surroundings.
"
Russian forces reportedly lost positions south of Bakhmout on December 18 and continued their ground attacks near Bakhmout and the city of Donetsk
," the Institute for the Study's analysis center commented in its Monday, December 19 report. of War based in the United States.
Bakhmout © RFI
The Russian general staff would have left Kreminna
On the other, the Ukrainians are trying to break through the Russian lines further north, in the Luhansk region, to regain control of the industrial agglomerations of Sieverodonetsk and Lyssytchansk, and to rush into the north of Donbass.
The key to this maneuver: the city of Kreminna, 20,000 inhabitants, taken by Russian forces in the spring of 2022.
Since September, the forces of kyiv have been progressing towards this locality at the cost of fierce fighting, and according to several Ukrainian political and military sources, the Russian general staff left Kreminna, to withdraw to Roubijné, in the agglomeration of Lysychansk.
From now on, the fighting would take place within the city of Kreminna itself.
If kyiv manages to regain control of this major road junction, a whole part of the Russian military system in the Donbass will collapse.
► To read also: In Ukraine, new drone attack in Russia, the day kyiv demands the exclusion of Moscow from the UN
A “
difficult and painful
” situation on the front
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday (December 26th) that the situation on the Donbass front was "
difficult and painful
" and that it required all the "
strength and concentration
" of the nation.
"
Bahmut, Kreminna and other parts of Donbass require the greatest strength and concentration
," he said in his daily address.
“
The occupier is deploying all the resources at its disposal, and they are considerable, in order to make progress.
The Ukrainian President also indicated that nearly nine million people remain without electricity after
Russian attacks
on energy infrastructure.
He had gone to Bakhmout, the hot spot of the front in the east of the country, on Tuesday December 20 to meet the soldiers.
(
And with
AFP)
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Ukraine
Russia
Volodymyr Zelensky
Defense