Violent fighting broke out on Saturday in Lisichansk, a city in eastern Ukraine where Ukrainians and Russians are fighting for control of Donbass, which pro-Russian separatists say they are completely surrounded but the Ukrainian army denies.
“The fighting takes place around Lisichansk. Happily, the city is not besieged and is under the control of the Ukrainian army”Ukrainian National Guard spokesman Rouslan Mouzytchouk told a television channel.
The Moscow-backed separatists claimed shortly before that they had “totally” surrounded Lisichansk.
Today, thanks to the joint efforts of the people’s militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the last places of strategic importance have been occupied, which allows us to say that the city of Lisichansk is completely surrounded,” he assured. Andrei Marochko today. , spokesman for the separatist militia, to the Russian agencies Interfax and TASS.
Lisichansk is the last major city in the Lougansk region of Donbass not yet in Russian hands, in an industrial region of eastern Ukraine that is largely Russian-speaking and partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and that Moscow now wants to control in its entirety. . .
The city, which before the start of the war had around 100,000 inhabitants, is close to Severodonetsk, which was conquered last week by Moscow after the withdrawal of the Ukrainian forces after a battle that lasted several weeks.
The two cities are separated by the Donets River, the main tributary of the Don River.
The taking of Lisichansk will allow the Russian army to advance towards Sloviansk (about 60 kilometers to the west) and Kramatorsk, two other large Donbass cities located in the Donetsk region.
This Saturday morning, the Ukrainian General Staff said it had launched a Russian offensive towards a town a few kilometers west of Lisichansk with the aim of encircling the city.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the situation remains “extremely difficult” for Ukrainian forces.
Source: Observadora
