“Unfortunately, we will have to withdraw our military from Sevierodonetsk. There is no point in being in a lost position. The death toll is rising “, writes Serhiy Hajdaj, governor of the Luhansk region, which includes Sievjerodonetsk, in a post on Telegram.
On Ukrainian television, Hajdaj says the troops will take up new positions and continue their operations from there, reports BBC.
Russian forces has recently taken control of several smaller communities outside Sievjerodonetsk. The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that Russian forces had taken control of the villages of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka and that they were trying to take over Syrotyne just south of Sevierodonetsk.
At the same time, the Russians are strengthening their grip on the twin city of Lysytjansk on the other side of the river Donets.
– The situation in Sievjerodonetsk will thus be even more unsustainable than it has been. It will be too great a risk for the remaining units, I think, which means that they will be pulled out to a new line of defense. The important thing for Ukraine is now the road between Lysytjansk to Bachmut and west and to succeed in keeping it open so that you are not surrounded, says Lieutenant Colonel Joakim Paasikivi about the situation.
If the fall of Sevierodonetsk and Lysytyansk, it would give Russia an opportunity to push further into the Donbass region, which consists of Luhansk and Donbass, and even further west. At that time, Russia would in principle control the entire Luhansk region and thus be able to continue south towards Donetsk.
– At the same time, one must remember that the Russian units are terribly worn. They need to recover but may also reorganize and merge with other units to become combat-capable again, says Joakim Paasikivi.
Taking control of the Donbass since the Russians abandoned the original plans to take Kyiv has been a stated goal for Moscow.
Serhij Hajdaj describes the situation in the area as a “hell” and says that the Ukrainian forces face uninterrupted shelling. Almost all infrastructure in Sievjerodonetsk has been damaged and at least 80 percent has been completely destroyed, according to Hajdaj.
How many civilians are left in the city is uncertain, but in a chemical factory that has been subjected to heavy Russian bombing, at least a hundred are said to be stuck.
– Those who remain are, as always in these cities, the weakest; those who have not been able to evacuate. They have a hell on earth right now, with a lack of medicine food and everything else. But there are also those who are positive about the Russians; those who consider themselves to be liberators, even if they are a minority.
According to the American think tank Institute for the Study of War, ISW, the probable Ukrainian losses of Sevierodonetsk and Lysytjansk will not be a turning point in the war. On the contrary, Russian offensives in the area will halt in the coming weeks and allow for Ukrainian counterattacks, according to the ISW.
“The battle of Sevierodonetsk will not be a decisive Russian victory,” they wrote in their latest update.