Status: 06/25/2022 1:20 p.m
After weeks of fighting, the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine is now completely in Russian hands, according to its mayor. The city was “completely occupied” by Russian forces.
According to Ukrainian information, the heavily contested city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine has been completely occupied by Russian troops. “The city is now under the full occupation of Russia,” said Ukrainian mayor of Sieverodonetsk Olexander Strjuk on Ukrainian television. They tried to make their own rules there. “As far as I know, they appointed some kind of commander,” Strjuk explained. It is not known where the mayor is currently staying.
According to him, troops loyal to the government have largely withdrawn from the city. According to the Ukrainian news site 24tv, Strjuk said they had taken different positions. He did not give numbers or details. The troops had left the chemical plant “Azot”. There were still civilians there. The Ukrainian army had ordered its withdrawal from the city on Friday. This should take a few days.
Civilians leave chemical plant
Sievjerodonetsk has so far been one of the last parts of Luhansk that has not yet been conquered by Russian and pro-Russian fighters. Several thousand people still live in the city today. According to the pro-Russian separatists, more than 800 civilians have now left the chemical plant, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
According to the state agency Ria Novosti, the site is now under the control of Russian troops and separatist fighters. Recently, there have been different reports of how many people have sought protection from the attacks there.
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/06/24/2022
Russian troops advance further east
Earlier, another separatist representative, Andrei Maroshko, said Russian troops had now advanced to Lysychansk, the neighboring city of Sieverodonetsk. There are street fights there. Sevierodonetsk and Lysychansk are separated by a river and are around 80 kilometers east of Kramatorsk, the capital of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region.
Should Russian troops also capture Lysychansk, they could then target Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, eventually capturing the entire Donbass region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
Numerous rocket hits nationwide
Russia has fired rockets at several Ukrainian regions. They were also fired from Belarus, the Ukrainian side said. The Unian news agency reported that impacts were recorded in the Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts. The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was also shelled with artillery.
According to the mayor, 24 rockets fell in the area around Zhytomyr alone – a large city around 140 kilometers west of Kyiv. A soldier was killed in the process.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russia fired the rockets at Zhytomyr and targets in Belarus’s Chernihiv Oblast, located between Kyiv and the Belarusian-Russian border. 20 rockets were fired from Belarusian territory and from the air at the village of Desna, the statement said. So there were no victims. The Ukrainian army said that infrastructure had been hit, without saying whether it was military infrastructure.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, planes shot down 12 cruise missiles in southern Belarus. The bombers took off from Shaykovka Airport in western Russia, entered Belarusian airspace and returned to Russia after launching the missiles. In addition to Desna, targets in the Kyiv and Sumy oblasts were also hit.
Meeting of Putin and Lukashenko
Russia will soon deliver nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus, according to President Vladimir Putin. As Putin announced at a meeting with Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko, “in the coming months” Russia will deliver the Iskander-M missile system to Belarus, which can also be equipped with nuclear warheads.
Putin also offered to help upgrade Belarusian warplanes so that they can also carry nuclear weapons in the future. Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Putin. However, the ex-Soviet republic actually describes itself as neutral in the war. The leadership in Kyiv accused Russia of wanting to draw Belarus into the war.
Topic overview
war in Ukraine