The fall of Lysychansk is psychologically an even greater defeat for Kyiv than it is a military victory for Moscow. Because the fight for the city was all about the feeling: we can do it.
comment by
Catherine Kahlweit
The Russian army didn’t leave much of Lysychansk. Less than ten thousand people, it is said, still lived in the ruins of the big city. It was taken and destroyed just like the long-fought Sieverodonetsk on the other side of the river: with weeks of artillery shelling, supply lines cut, and then, among the remnants of what was once home to 160,000 people, house-to-house fighting for every street, every street Meter. As a city, Lysychansk is hardly livable anymore.