Ukrainian forces retreat from Severdonetsk in face of Russian assault
Ukrainian forces in retreat from Severdonetsk in face of brutal Russian offensive that has reduced city to rubble
- Ukraine will retreat from Severodonetsk in the face of brutal Russian offensive
- City has been ‘reduced to rubble’ and staying in position ‘doesn’t make sense’
- Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk gives Russia all of Luhansk
- US sending another $450 million in fresh arms, including Himars rocket systems
- EU grants Ukraine candidate status to join the bloc in a boost to the country
Ukrainian forces will retreat from Severodonetsk in the face of a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground eastern city to rubble, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday.
The news came shortly after the European Union made a strong show of support for Ukraine, granting the former Soviet republic candidate status, although there is still a long path ahead to membership.
Capturing Severodonetsk has become a key goal of the Russians as they focus their offensive on eastern Ukraine after being repelled from Kyiv and other areas following their February invasion.
The strategically important industrial hub has been the scene of weeks of street battles as the outgunned Ukrainians put up a fierce defence.
But Sergiy Gaiday – governor of Lugansk, which includes the city – said the Ukrainian military would have to retreat.
‘They have received an order’ to withdraw, he said on Telegram.
‘Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn’t make sense.’
Ukrainian servicemen moving to a position in the city of Severodonetsk under heavy bombardment by Russian forces
Governor of Lugansk Sergiy Gaiday said that Ukrainian forces around Severodonetsk have been given the order to retreat as remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled ‘doesn’t make sense’
Ukrainian troop ride a tank on a road of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 21, 2022, as Ukraine says Russian shelling has caused ‘catastrophic destruction’ in the eastern industrial city of Lysychansk, which lies just across a river from Severodonetsk where Russian and Ukrainian troops have been locked in battle for weeks
Severodonetsk has been ‘reduced to rubble’ by concentrated heavy artillery shelling by the Russian army
A Ukrainian serviceman on a position in the city of Severodonetsk of Luhansk area. Ukrainian forces have been given the order to retreat, according the the mayor of Luhansk
Locals look at destroyed buildings in Lysychansk after heavy fighting in the Luhansk area. Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk’s sister city across the Donets river, would give the Russians control of Lugansk, and allow them to push further into the wider Donbas
Smoke billows over the oil refinery outside the town of Lysychansk. The neighbouring city of Severodonetsk has been ‘nearly turned to rubble’ by continual bombardment
The city has been ‘nearly turned to rubble’ by continual bombardment, he added.
‘All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety percent of the city is damaged, 80 per cent (of) houses will have to be demolished,’ he said.
The Ukrainians had already been pushed back from much of the city, leaving them in control of only industrial areas.
Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk would give the Russians control of Lugansk, and allow them to push further into the wider Donbas.
Gaiday said the Russians were now advancing on Lysychansk, which has been facing increasingly heavy Russian bombardment.
AFP journalists driving out of the city Thursday twice had to jump out of cars and lie on the ground as Russian forces shelled its main supply road.
They saw dark smoke rising over the road ahead, and heard artillery fire and saw flashes of light, while the road was strewn with trees felled by shelling.
The situation for those that remain in the city is bleak.
Liliya Nesterenko said her house had no gas, water or electricity and she and her mother were cooking on a campfire. She was cycling along the street, and had come out to feed a friend’s pets.
But the 39-year-old was upbeat about the city’s defences: ‘I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (be able to) cope.
‘They’ve prepared already.’
A representative of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine earlier told AFP the resistance of Ukrainian forces trying to defend Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was ‘pointless and futile’.
US military personnel stand by a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in Saudi Arabia
The US is cooperating with Ukrainian demands to provide accurate, long-range weapons systems such as the HIMAR to match and exceed Russia on the battlefield
The Himars use precision-guided munitions with a range is about 50 miles (80 kilometres)
‘At the rate our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic will be liberated,’ said Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed army of Lugansk.
In the southern Kherson region, a Moscow-appointed official was killed in an explosion, Russian news agencies reported, the latest in a string of attacks on pro-Kremlin officials in Ukrainian regions under Russian control.
Interfax reported an explosive device was planted in the car of the victim, who was likely the head of the region’s department of youth policy, family and sports.
With Ukraine pleading for accelerated weapon deliveries, the United States announced it was sending another $450 million in fresh armaments, including four Himars rocket systems, which can launch multiple missiles at extended range.
The systems can simultaneously launch multiple precision missiles at an extended range, and provide a capability that Ukraine is sorely lacking in the raging battlefields around Luhansk and the Donetsk in the east.
Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, tweeted yesterday: ‘HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my American colleague and friend, US Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.’
At a Brussels summit Thursday, EU leaders granted candidate status to Ukraine, as well as Moldova.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the news as ‘a unique and historic moment’, adding: ‘Ukraine’s future is within the EU.’
French President Emmanuel Macron said the decision by EU leaders sent a ‘very strong signal’ to Russia that Europeans support the pro-Western aspirations of Ukraine.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L), President of the European Council Charles Michel (C) and France’s President Emmanuel Macron (R)
French President Emmanuel Macron talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as they attend a European Union leaders summit in Brussels today. Yesterday EU leaders granted candidate status to Ukraine, as well as Moldova. Macron said the decision by EU leaders sent a ‘very strong signal’ to Russia that Europeans support the pro-Western aspirations of Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin had declared Ukraine to be part of Moscow’s sphere and insisted he was acting due to attempts to bring the country into NATO, the Western alliance that comes with security guarantees.
European powers before the invasion had distanced themselves from US support for Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, and EU membership is at least years away.
Ukraine and Moldova will have to go through protracted negotiations and the European Union has laid out steps that Kyiv must take even before that, including bolstering the rule of law and fighting corruption.
Putin reacted to the news of Ukraine’s potential accession to the EU with unexpected equanimity, saying last week that he had ‘nothing against’ it.
‘We have nothing against it. It is not a military bloc. It’s the right of any country to join economic unions,’ Putin said on Friday when asked about the prospects of Ukraine joining the EU.
Western officials have accused Russia of weaponising its key exports of gas as well as grain from Ukraine, contributing to global inflation and rising hunger in the world.
A US official warned of new retaliatory measures against Russia at the Group of Seven summit being attended by President Joe Biden in Germany starting Sunday.
Germany ratcheted up an emergency gas plan to its second alert level, just one short of the maximum that could require rationing in Europe’s largest economy, after Russia slashed supplies.
‘Gas is now a scarce commodity,’ German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters, urging households to cut back on use.
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