Fighting in Lysychansk: Russia reports capture, Ukraine disagrees

According to the Russian army, it has captured Lysychansk. As a result, the entire Donbass region of Luhansk was “liberated,” the Defense Ministry said in Moscow. But Ukraine disagrees.

Russian forces have taken control of the last major bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the Donbass region of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “as a result of successful military operations, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation together with units of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic have gained full control over the city of Lysyhansk,” Russian news agencies reported.

But Ukraine disagrees. The city is not under full Russian control, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv told the British broadcaster BBC. However, the situation has been “very intense” for some time now, with Russian troops constantly attacking the city. “For Ukrainians, the value of human life is the top priority,” said the spokesman. “As a result, we might sometimes withdraw from certain areas in order to retake them in the future.”

Ukrainian ministry spokesman said Donbass is not lost even if Russia captures all of Luhansk. There are other large cities there, especially in the Donetsk region, which are under Ukrainian control. “These cities have been the target of heavy rocket attacks and artillery shelling in recent days. But the battle for Donbass is not over yet.” Contradictory information about Lysychansk had already been given yesterday. While pro-Russian separatists claimed to already control the city, the Ukrainian side denied this claim.

Belgorod under fire

Further north-east and on the Russian side there were also reports of shelling. The city of Belgorod is said to have been targeted by artillery or bombardment early in the morning. Pictures from the Russian state news agency Tass showed covered roofs, broken windows and debris.

Eleven multi-storey blocks of flats were partially destroyed and another 39 single-family houses were damaged, the responsible governor wrote. According to him, three people were killed and four others injured. Russian Telegram channels blamed the Ukrainian side for the attacks. So far there has been no official statement from Ukraine.

Accumulation of Russian troop reserves

The government in Kyiv had previously emphasized several times that it did not want to attack any targets on Russian soil – so as not to endanger western arms supplies. The United States in particular feared that Ukraine could use the weapons for attacks on the Russian interior.

Belgorod is about 30 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Here Russia had accumulated considerable troop reserves to invade. The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has been shelled and bombed from this region since the beginning of the war. Just an hour later, rockets are said to have flown towards Kharkiv again.

The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian General Staff announced that they had once again carried out successful attacks on enemy positions. The information is difficult to verify.

Attack on Melitopol

However, the attack on the occupied city of Melitopol in the south-east of the country was confirmed by both sides. A huge plume of smoke could be seen in footage from the city. The Ukrainians want to have destroyed a large technology depot at an airfield.

The mayor of the city Ivan Fyodorov said: “At three and five o’clock this morning there were more than 30 attacks on a military base. Currently the city of Melitopol is covered in smoke, it has been like this for three to four hours. Because on the site there were also fuel stores that are currently burning.” The Ukrainian side hopes to be able to increase the pressure on Russian troops, at least in the south-east of the country.

Almost 400,000 people live in Belgorod. The city is a good 40 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine and is the administrative center of the region of the same name.

With information from Palina Millings, WDR Cologne, for the ARD studio in Moscow