(Novodruzhesk) Kreminna has fallen after three days of fighting, they are raging in Rubizhne: in eastern Ukraine, the Russians have advanced one step towards Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian capital of Donbass, one of the objectives of Moscow.
Updated yesterday at 4:37 p.m.
Kreminna, 18,000 inhabitants before the war, was taken overnight from Sunday to Monday by Russian forces.
“The fighting lasted three days and Russia used a large number of armored vehicles to attack the city,” Oleksandr Dunets, head of the Kreminna military administration, told Radio Donbass.
According to him, “the fighting continues on the outskirts”.
Four residents were killed as they evacuated the city alone in a car targeted by Russian fire, the Ukrainian army said.
“Our defenders have retreated to new positions,” said the Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, Sergei Gaïdaï, on his Facebook page.
“We can now say that Russian troops have started the battle for Donbass, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in the evening.
Kreminna is about 50 km northeast of Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian capital of Donbass and one of Moscow’s targets in this region.
The city is bordered by the Donets river, which also crosses Roubijné, Lyssytchansk and Severedonetsk, close to each other. They are all on the front line and have been the subject of intense bombardments on both sides for several days.
On Monday, Rubizhne – more than 60,000 inhabitants before the war – came under heavy fire from Ukrainian artillery and mortars, AFP journalists noted.
PHOTO RONALDO SCHEMIDT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
View of Rubizhne
Ukrainian positions pounded the locality, especially from the village of Novodruzhesk, about three km away.
From the slag heap of this former small mining town, one could see and hear powerful explosions on Roubijné, sometimes followed by fires, and releasing plumes of black or white smoke which rose above the town.
Sporadic heavy machine gun fire was also audible.
“Bombarded everywhere”
In the village of Novodruzhesk, a man perches on an electric pole and repairs a severed cable.
“See these two craters, I think this cable was damaged by shrapnel”, explains Victor Pasipko, 68, 48 of whom as a miner, came to help with the repair.
A crater, Nadya, 65, and her husband Sergiy, 70, have a big one in their garden just outside their house.
On April 13, the bomb fell where their blue Lada was parked. The car lies with all four wheels in the air, on a mound of rubble and the remains of a tin roof.
“We are bombarded everywhere. It’s a miracle that we are still alive,” said the 60-year-old, who does not wish to give her name.
“We were lying on the ground and waiting. Since February 24, we have been sleeping in the cellar,” she continues.
“There is no more water, no electricity, no nothing. We have no more money, no more gasoline, we can’t leave,” she explains in a trembling voice.
A little further on, a woman points to a completely destroyed house.
A Ukrainian tank was in the garden near the house to be less visible. He left, and soon after the Russians hit the place, she explains.
At the same time, a Ukrainian mortar slams into a nearby wood. A few seconds later, a plume of white smoke appears in the town of Roubijné, then the sound of an explosion.
About 15 km to the east of Rubizhne, the Russians struck positions of Ukrainian forces throughout the night in the woods bordering the small town of Yampil.
Reinforced Ukrainian Defense
In the morning, several dozen residents were evacuated by bus or left with their cars.
“I only slept 15 minutes last night,” says Mikhailo, 27, who is walking through town with two friends.
“There were shots from the forest. In front, behind, to the left, to the right, no one knows what to expect, ”adds the young man, who had his wife evacuated in the morning.
In the areas of Yampil and the neighboring town of Lyman, AFP journalists came across several infantry fighting vehicles, troop carriers and towed artillery guns.
In the region in recent days, the Ukrainians have strengthened their defenses ahead of the Russian offensive.
On the roads to Kramatorsk, checkpoints were fortified, chicanes with concrete blocks and heaps of fresh earth appeared in places.