Kyiv (Ukraine) : Ukrainian forces have managed to recapture parts of the city of Severodonetsk as part of a counterattack, hoping to deter Russian offensive in the eastern Donbass region as new long-range rockets from Kyiv US Waiting for the system to arrive.
Close-up fighting in Severodnetsk, the capital of the Luhansk region, makes it difficult for Russian troops to open their artillery against Ukrainian forces. This has been Russia’s main advantage in the past, enabling them to crush Ukrainian defenses and gain slow but steady gains.
Ukraine’s leaders are hoping that the arrival of heavy weapons from the west will enable them to turn the tide against better-armed Russian forces in the country’s east. The Biden administration said last week that it would provide Ukraine with a guided-rocket system capable of hitting targets from a range of 48 miles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on state television on Sunday that the delivery of the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, would not change anything, calling it an effort by the West to make up for military equipment that Ukraine had already lost. However, he indicated that this could prompt Russia to increase its attacks.
“If they are supplied, we will draw appropriate conclusions from it and use our weapons, of which we have enough weapons, which we have not killed yet,” Mr. Putin said.
Meanwhile, Russia fired missiles at several places across the country over the weekend, breaking the relative peace in Kyiv and several other regions from fighting in the Donbass.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv early on Sunday, prompting one person to be sent to a hospital. According to local media, three were killed in Russian shelling in the southern city of Mykolaiv. And in the Donbass, where the fighting is now concentrated, four cities were hit by Russian missiles, including Svyatohirsk, where about 300 people took refuge in a monastery. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, four were killed and the monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was destroyed.
“They are ready to burn everything: the Orthodox Church like anything in Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky said in an address posted online late Saturday. He said 113 churches had been destroyed since the full-scale invasion began in February.
Despite their superior artillery and air power, Russian troops were still struggling on Sunday to take Severodnetsk, the focus of their Donbass offensive.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Moscow first occupied a part of Severodnetsk more than a week ago, and forces in other regions of Ukraine to focus all available forces on capturing the city. shifted to a defensive position. Late last week, Ukrainian officials spoke of a possible exit from Severodnetsk altogether.
But after a week of bloody, block-by-block urban fighting, Ukrainian fighters have reclaimed parts of Severodnetsk, according to Serhi Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, which is part of the Donbass, and now half the city. controls.
“The occupiers lost a large number of personnel,” Mr Haidai wrote on Telegram on Sunday.
The British Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian counterattack was “potentially blunting the operational momentum that the Russian military had previously achieved by concentrating on combat units and firepower.”
According to British intelligence, the Russian army in the Severodnetsk region includes reserves of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
The British Defense Ministry said Moscow’s use of separatist fighters, who are poorly trained and lack heavy equipment, indicates a desire to protect Russian units from casualties in urban combat.