House-to-house fighting breaks out in Severodonetsk, the key city for the final battle for Lugansk

The strengths ukrainian resisted today in house-to-house fighting the advance of Russian troops in the city of Severodonetskthe final battle for control of the region of Luganskwhile the pro-Russian militias were already approaching within gunshot of the city of Sloviansk, in the neighboring Donetks region.

“Fighting is already taking place in the streets of Severodonetsk. The enemy advances, said the regional governor, Serhiy Gaidáito the 1+1 television network about the situation in the city, the last major city in the Luhansk region that has not fallen to Russian forces.

LOOK: French journalist Frédéric Léclerc-Imhoff dies in a Russian attack in Lugansk, Ukraine

assured that the “critical infrastructure of the city has been destroyed almost one hundred percent, while 90% of the houses have suffered damage and, among them, 60% are in a dilapidated state.”

“The city is full of Russian corpses, the streets are burning; in the future, this can lead to the development of infections”, said Gaidái.

SUSPENSION OF EVACUATION AND MAXIMUM INTENSITY COMBAT

The governor ordered the suspension of the evacuation of civilians from the city after today the French journalist of the BFMTV network Frédéric Lecrecq-Imhoff was killed by shrapnel on a bus that was on its way to pick up evacuees.

LOOK: The crude prognosis for Vladimir Putin made by a former Russian and Ukrainian economic adviser

“The fighting has reached maximum intensity. Russian troops are firing along the entire front line and are trying to hit with artillery deep into our defense.” Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianik told a press conference today.

Along with this, he added, Russian forces are attacking on several fronts, but “Fierce battles take place in the Severodonetsk, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv directions.”

LOOK: “They treat the bodies of soldiers like garbage”: how Russia deals with military casualties of war

“We are optimistic about the situation, but it is still difficult,” Motuzianik admitted.

MILITIA ADVANCE TO SLOVIANSK AND UKRAINIANS ATTACK IN THE SOUTH

Meanwhile, the Territorial Defense General Staff of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetskaffirmed that his militias, with the support of the Russian Army, continued advancing towards Slovyansk and they occupied two towns, 10 and 20 kilometers northeast of that city of just over 100,000 inhabitants.

The capture of Sloviansk is key to launching the assault on Kramatorsk, an important railway junction and the main Ukrainian military stronghold in the east of the country, since it is only 10 kilometers away.

If in the east of the country the situation is becoming more complicated for the Ukrainian forces, in the south they have managed to launch some counterattacks and even force the Russian troops to withdraw in some sectors.

“In the course of an offensive by the defense forces, the enemy suffered casualties and withdrew from the town of Nikolaika in the Kherson region,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported today.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), lhe attacks launched by Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region have disrupted Russia’s plans to occupy southern Ukraine.

kyiv ASKS THE WEST FOR MORE HEAVY WEAPONS

Ukraine insists on its requests to the West for more necessary heavy weapons, in particular, tanks, artillery and rocket launchers, to compensate for Russia’s current superiority in war equipment.

Although the United States and some of its allies have provided the Ukrainian military with 155-millimeter howitzers and other weapons, the kyiv government says that the volumes of these deliveries are insufficient to change the course of the war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said today that several 155-millimeter howitzers supplied by Italy to Ukraine were destroyed.

The position of the Ukrainian military operating these towable howitzers was detected from the air and destroyed with artillery fire, the ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.

The Russian Army assured that it corroborated the results of its attack by means of a drone and published the corresponding video.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that any arms supply to Ukraine will be considered a “legitimate goal” of the Russian Army.

RUSSIA CONCENTRATES TROOPS IN THE KURSK BORDER REGION

While in the east of Ukraine fighting intensifies, Russia concentrates troops in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering the Ukrainian region of Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine.

“Due to the situation in the border areas, the Ministry of Defense has sent a large number of troops to the region,” Kursk Governor Román Starovoit said today, quoted by the Interfax agency, at a meeting of the regional Executive.

He added that “additional weapons have arrived and continue to arrive in the region: artillery and rocket launchers.”

“All this, to guarantee the life and safety of the inhabitants of the region,” Starovoit stressed.

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn