- The city of Lysychansk “no longer exists” – resident
- Putin claims the biggest victory in almost 5 months of war
- The next battle for Donetsk
- Ukraine expects a counterattack in the south
Kyiv, July 5 (Reuters) – Russian forces set targets for their next targets in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in neighboring Lugansk province and the five-month war entered a new stage.
The capture of the city of Lysychansk on Sunday completed the Russian conquest of Luhansk, one of the two regions of the Donbas, the industrialized region of eastern Ukraine that has become the site of the largest battle in Europe. in generations.
Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the struggle for Luhansk, especially during the siege of the twin cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Both cities have been ruined by relentless Russian bombing.
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“The city no longer exists,” said Nina, a young mother who has fled Lysychansk to take refuge in the central city of Dnipro.
“It has virtually been wiped off the face of the Earth. There is no humanitarian aid distribution center, it has been run over. The building that once housed the center no longer exists. Like many of our homes.”
Ukrainian forces on Tuesday took new defensive lines in Donetsk, where they still control large cities, while Putin told his troops to “rest absolutely and regain their military readiness,” while units in other areas continue to fight.
Russian forces bombed the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk overnight, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk.
“Now they are also the main line of assault for the enemy,” he said of the populations. “There is no safe place without bombings in the Donetsk region.”
Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand over Luhansk and Donetsk to pro-Moscow separatists, who have declared independent states.
“This is Russia’s last victory on Ukrainian territory,” Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video posted online.
“They were medium-sized cities. And that lasted from April 4th to July 4th, that’s 90 days. So many losses.”
Arrestovich said that in addition to the battle for Donetsk, Ukraine hoped to launch counteroffensives in the south of the country.
“Taking the cities from the east meant that 60% of Russian forces are now concentrated in the east and it is difficult for them to be redirected to the south,” he said.
“And there are no more forces that can be brought from Russia. They paid a great price for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.”
Some military experts estimated that the hard-fought victory had brought few strategic gains to Russian forces, and the result of what has been dubbed the “Battle of the Donbas” remained on the balance sheet.
“I think it’s a tactical victory for Russia, but at a huge cost,” said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London. He compared the battle to the enormous struggles for the meager territorial gains that characterized World War I.
“It has taken 60 days to move very slowly,” he said. “The Russians may declare some kind of victory, but the key war battle is yet to come.”
Melvin said it is likely that the decisive battle for Ukraine will not take place in the east, where Russia is mounting its main assault, but in the south, where Ukraine has launched a counter-offensive to retake territory.
“This is where we see that the Ukrainians are making progress around Kherson. There are counterattacks starting there and I think we will most likely see the momentum towards Ukraine as it then tries to mount a large-scale counter-offensive. To push back. the Russians, ”he said.
Early Tuesday, Russian rockets hit Mykolaiv, a southern city on the main road between Kherson and Odessa, said Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych.
‘SUPERHUMAN EFFORT’
Zelenskiy said Monday that despite Ukraine’s withdrawal from Lysychansk, its troops continued to fight.
“The Ukrainian armed forces respond, push back and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly video message.
“We have to break them. It’s a difficult task. It requires superhuman time and effort. But we have no alternative.”
The battle for Luhansk is the closest Moscow has come to achieving one of its stated goals since its forces were defeated trying to capture Kyiv in March. It marks Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the southern port of Mariupol in late May.
Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize his southern neighbor and protect Russian-speakers from what he calls “fascist” nationalists. Ukraine and the West say this is an unfounded pretext for blatant aggression to seize territory.
Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, acknowledged that his entire province was now effectively in Russian hands, but told Reuters: “We have to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk … It hurts, but it doesn’t. is losing the war. war “.
Gaidai said Ukrainian forces withdrawing from Lysychansk were now maintaining the line between Bakhmut and Sloviansk, preparing to prevent a new Russian advance.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukraine’s hopes of a sustained counterattack are based in part on receiving additional weapons from the West, including rockets that could offset Russia’s huge firepower advantage by hitting deep behind the front line.
“It’s a matter of how quickly supplies arrive,” Arestovych said.
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Reuters bureux report; Written by Michael Perry; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel
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