Ukraine war
Battle for Lysychansk: 54 craters after hours of attacks
Ukraine, Lysychansk: Ukrainian troops examine abandoned positions of the Russian military
© ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP
As Ukraine moves towards EU candidate status, Russia is stepping up attacks in the east of the country. The strategically important city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region is increasingly becoming the target.
Now it has also hit the police station. The police station in Lysychansk, which has been heavily contested for weeks, is one of the few public institutions still functioning in the devastated eastern Ukrainian city. Now there is a hole in the facade. 20 police officers were injured in the heavy attack on Monday evening, says Colonel Oleksandr Kutsepalenko.
Lysychansk is a strategically important industrial center in the eastern Donbass region. Opposite, on the other side of the river, is Sieverodonetsk. The colonel counted 54 craters after the most recent Russian attack. The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, reported “catastrophic destruction” by “very heavy shelling” from the air. Residential buildings near the police station were also hit.
Despite the attacks, the station was still open on Tuesday. Citizens came to report deaths or needed help locating their loved ones. Some just came to use the restroom. Officers held meetings at the police station.
“Partition walls collapsed and the doors were blown out,” says a police officer, who only uses his nickname Petrovich, and shows the damage. There are three burned-out police cars in front of the station. The agency was hit once before in March, but not by such heavy artillery, says Petrovich.
block of flats hit
A block of flats opposite the train station was also hit, there too there is a huge hole in the facade. Pages from school books and a stuffed animal are lying on the street in front of the house, and a Russian rocket in the yard. A woman from the second floor was injured, Petrovich knows.
On the arterial road in both directions there are many Ukrainian military vehicles, tanks and personnel carriers. A military ambulance stands in the sweltering heat, a tire has blown. The door is open, inside a medic is treating a bleeding soldier, another is lying next to him on a stretcher.
Soldiers gave defensive positions
Soldiers dug new defensive positions near the front on Tuesday. Debris from destroyed cars and vans was hauled onto the street to make it difficult for Russian troops to advance.
Many people fled Lysychansk. For those who remain, the situation is becoming increasingly desperate. They travel around the destroyed city on foot or by bike to get food and water.
Several elderly residents look at the damage from the recent attacks. They hoped to be able to buy bread from the nearby bakery, they say. But she was probably hit too. Others fill their plastic bottles from a vat near the main fire station – they cannot drink this water.
“They think we’re separatists because we stayed,” says a pensioner named Igor, referring to the officials and the governor. “We are normal people,” affirms a younger woman with a stroller full of plastic bottles. Igor is angry with the authorities because he is not getting his pension – and scolds: “They should distribute the money with an armored car.”
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