Large parts of the province of Luhansk, in northeastern Ukraine, are now under Russian control. Progress towards Sievierodonetsk has intensified over the past 24 hours and attempts to occupy the city are likely to continue, writes the American think tank Institute for the Study of War, ISWin its latest update.
The region’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, states that the Russian attack is taking place from four different directions, but that the forces, despite repeated attempts, have not succeeded in entering Sievierodonetsk.
One of two important bridges over the river Severskyj Donets connecting Sievierodonetsk with the city of Luhansk was destroyed on Saturday by Russian forces. The attack makes it particularly difficult for Ukraine to defend Severodonetsk, which ISW describes as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the region.
– The situation in Donbass is extremely difficult. As in previous days, the Russian army is trying to attack Slovyansk and Sievierodonetsk, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly speech on Saturday.
Although attacks occur in others parts of the country, the war has been concentrated since late March on the Donbass region, which consists of the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. Vladimir Putin then made it clear, after several unsuccessful attempts to capture the capital Kyiv, that he primarily wanted to “liberate”, that is, control, the designated area.
Even before the invasion, Russian-backed separatists controlled parts of Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk province, but Moscow wants to seize the remaining Ukrainian territory in the region, writes Reuters.
In a televised speech on Saturday, President Zelensky signaled that he was ready for new peace talks with Russia, reports The Guardian. In the spring, little tentative progress was reported during the meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, until Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator, announced last week that they had been suspended.
According to a statement from Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, they are not willing to give up any part of the country in the negotiations.
To the Wall Street Journal he says Ukraine will fight until Russia leaves the country and he also includes the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine is once again appealing for weapons from the West, and more specifically Budanov is demanding different robotic systems, heavy artillery and attack aircraft.
– We have already launched an offensive in some places, but a large-scale offensive without these weapons will be difficult, he tells the newspaper.
On Thursday, the President of the United States approved Joe Biden a new support package, the second American in the series, worth the equivalent of SEK 400 billion, something that his counterpart Zelensky noticed last night.
“It is a historic contribution to protecting European freedom,” he said.
Near the Black Sea, Russia has for the second time claimed control of the Ukrainian industrial city of Mariupol after the last defense entrenched inside the Azovstal steelworks, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, has given up. These are about 2,500 men that Russia claims to have abducted, reports AP.
When Moscow declared victory in Mariupol in April, the information was rejected by Ukraine, and as long as the resistance remained, Russia had to set aside weapons and energy to hold on as well as attack the huge steelworks.
In the city – or what remains of it after almost three months of fighting – about 170,000 civilians are said to remain. Countless evacuation attempts have been made and failed during the occupation, which is said to have cost over 20,000 civilian lives, according to AP.
At least 3,838 civilians were killed in the war through May 19, including 69 children. In addition, 4,351 people were injured, according to U.N.