The Ukrainian army tried to reverse the advance of Russian troops in the city. Severodnetsk, the last great focus of the resistance Ukraine in the field of Lugansk with neighbor lisichansk and where Russia According to pro-Russian separatist militias, it already controls a third of the city.
“The situation is extremely complex. Part of Severodnetsk is controlled by the Russians,” said the governor of the Lugansk region. Serhiy Gaidai. However, he insisted that Russian troops “could not move freely” because of Ukrainian resistance.
a city divided in two
Alexander Streak, The mayor of the besieged city, for his part, declared to Ukrainian channel 1+1 that “the front line has divided the city in two”.
“But the city is still defending itself, it is still Ukrainian and our soldiers are fighting,” he said.
On the other side of the front, militias from the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic said they were continuing their offensive.
“You can already say that we control a third of the city,” said the leader of the pro-Russian militia, Leonid Paschnik, Quoted by official Russian agency TASS
Passechnik said that the main objective at this time is “to liberate Severodnetsk and neighboring Lisichansk.”
“The Ukrainian troops in these areas (…) are made up of about 10,000 soldiers,” he said.
a “clean-up operation”
according to him Command of the Ukrainian General Staff, Pro-Russian militias attack the position of the city’s defenders “along the line of contact with mortars, artillery and missiles”.
“The main efforts are focused on establishing control over Severodnetsk,” he said. Gaidai denounced that the Russian military was planning to conduct a “cleansing operation” in and around Severodnetsk, in the eastern region of Lugansk. eliminate or neutralize any resistance.
The Russians are “sending a battalion of soldiers that will pass through the surrounding villages. They are moving teams with large flamethrowers to burn our army, as well as the civilian population, they don’t care,” he denounced. .
tension on the whole
Meanwhile, the situation in other regions of the country remains tense, acknowledged the Ukrainian command, which reported mortar attack in the border areas of Chernigov y Sumi, to the north and northeast of Ukraine, respectively.
Unlike Severodnetsk, where the Russians have doubled their efforts in other directions have chosen to regroup and equip themselves, To be prepared for future attacks, the Ukrainian command indicated.
According to the Ukrainian military, this strategy is observed in the Slobozhansk region, near the occupied territory. liman, and in sloviansk, to be with one of the major objectives of the Russian army kramatorsk The last major city in Ukrainian hands in the Donetsk region.
governor of the province, Pavlo Kirilenko, Three deaths and seven injuries were reported from Russian missile strikes in Sloviansk today, for which pro-Russian militias responded to complaints of Ukrainian attacks that resulted in at least two deaths.
“As a result of today’s attack by Ukrainian forces, the number of victims in the Donetsk People’s Republic increased to seven people (in one day): two killed and five wounded,” the report said. Territorial Defense Staff of the self-proclaimed republic on his channel Wire.
According to the data released this Tuesday by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Since last 24 February, the date on which the so-called Russian “special military operation” began, 4,074 civilians were killed and 4,826 others were wounded.
Finding in Azovestal
along with Russian Defense Ministry On Tuesday reported the discovery of the bodies of 152 Ukrainian fighters in “isothermal vans” on the territory of the steel plant Azovstal, Ann Marispol, in southeastern Ukraine.
According to the spokesman of the military unit, Major General Egor Konashenkov, Russian sappers found mines under the corpses.
According to Russia, it has been established that Kyiv wanted to blame Moscow for “deliberately” eliminating the bodies in order to prevent their relocation and distribution to relatives.
Russia announced on 20 May the complete surrender of the defenders of Azovstal, a total of 2,439 Ukrainian fighters, most of them members. Nationalist Azov Battalion, Which will be judged by the representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Separatist leaders of this extended region, Denis Pushilin, confirmed that the trial would begin “in the near future” and did not rule out that some fighters could be sentenced to “maximum penalties”. “Rape, Torture and Killing of Civilians” in the Donbass.
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