Ukraine has so far blocked a Russian advance north of the Donetsk region, but the city of Sloviansk and other civilian areas are under heavy bombardment, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
After Russia completed its takeover of the neighboring Luhansk region on Sunday with the capture of the now devastated Lysychansk, it increased its focus on Donetsk, where the southern part is already controlled by it and its representatives.
Moscow says the complete expulsion of the Ukrainian military from both areas is key to a four-month offensive it calls a “special military operation” to ensure its own security, what the West calls an unprovoked war of aggression.
Donetsk and Luhansk form the Donbass, an industrialized region of eastern Ukraine that has seen Europe’s biggest war in generations and Russia seeks to seize control on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in the two self-proclaimed people’s republics.
Ukrainian officials said intense clashes took place as Russian forces tried to advance from Luhansk towards the Donetsk region and city of Sloviansk.
“We are holding the enemy on the border of the Luhansk region and the Donetsk region,” Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television.
He said that the regular Russian army and reserve forces were sent there in an obvious effort to cross the Siverskiy Donets River, and saw fierce fighting in two small settlements within the borders of Luhansk.
“The Luhansk region is still fighting. Almost the entire region has been captured, but fighting continues in two settlements,” he said in a video interview.
Gaidai and other Ukrainian officials said Russian forces opened artillery fire on targets in the Donetsk region.
Sloviansk mayor Vadym Lyakh said in a video released Wednesday that the city had been bombed in the past two weeks.
“The situation is tense,” he said a day after local officials said Russian forces had attacked a market and residential area in Sloviansk, killing at least two people.
Russia says it does not target civilians.
Lyakh said 17 villagers have been killed and 67 injured since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops to Ukraine on February 24.
source: Noticias
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