Russia assured this Tuesday that its armed forces took control of residential areas of Severodonetsk and 97% of the Lugansk region, in eastern Ukraine, to which the city belongs.
“The residential areas of Severodonetsk have been completely liberated. The conquest of its industrial estate and surrounding towns continues”Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with military leaders, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
The city of Severodonetsk is the epicenter of the fighting in the Donbass region, made up of the Luhansk and Donetsk territories, which Russia said it would liberate when it invaded Ukraine more than three months ago.
According to Shoigu, whose appearances have been rare since the beginning of the war, Moscow now controls 97% of the Lugansk regionto which Severodonetsk belongs.
“The cities of Lyman and Sviatoguirsk, as well as 15 other towns, have been liberated,” the minister added during the meeting, broadcast on Russian television.
If confirmed, the conquest of these two cities would be significant, as it would remove one last obstacle to the symbolic city of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the capital of the Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk region, according to AFP.
Ukrainian Governor of Luhansk Serhiy Haidai admitted that Russian forces control the industrial periphery of Severodonetskbut he said kyiv forces continued to repel the attacks.
Ukrainian Army resists strong Russian offensive in Severodonetsk
“The toughest street battles continue, with varying degrees of success,” Haidai told the US news agency AP.
“The situation is constantly changing, but the Ukrainians are repelling the attacks,” he said.
Haidai said that Russian troops shelled a local market, a school and a university building, destroying the latter, and that three injured people were sent to hospitals in other parts of Ukraine.
“The total destruction of the city is underway, the Russian shelling has intensified significantly in the last 24 hours. The Russians are using scorched earth tactics,” Haidai added.
The information about the course of the war in Ukraine published by the two sides cannot be immediately verified independently.
In Tuesday’s meeting with military leaders, the Russian defense minister also said that Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is in operationas well as energy infrastructure in the Donbass region.
“The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, is operating normally,” Shoigu said, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
With six nuclear reactors, the Zaporizhia plant has been under the control of Moscow forces since early March, days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Shoigu also said that 33 coal mines, two oil fields and 14 gas fields were still operating in Donbass territory controlled by pro-Russian militias.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Italian Rafael Grossi, announced on Monday that he was preparing to send experts to the Zaporizhia plant to guarantee its safety, given the conflict in the region.
The IAEA said the mission was requested by the kyiv authorities, but the Ukrainian state-owned company Energoatom, which runs the country’s four power plants, said on Tuesday that it opposes the IAEA visit as long as the power plant is under Russian control. .
Source: Observadora
