Fighting continued on Tuesday for the takeover of Severodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine subjected to a deluge of Russian fire, where the situation is changing “hour by hour” according to kyiv, which accuses with Washington Russia to “blackmail” wheat exports.
“Our heroes hold their positions in Severodonetsk. Intense street fighting continues,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his final video address on Monday evening.
“In the Donetsk region, in addition to artillery fire, the enemy fires from planes and helicopters,” according to the first bulletin of the Ukrainian army general staff on Tuesday morning, confirming that Severodonetsk remains “ the enemy’s core target.
kyiv is struggling to cope with the influx of Russian troops into Severodonetsk, the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region.
The Russians “are in the process of destroying the city… As they have not managed to take it in one or two days, they are using air strikes, heavy artillery”, testified Monday evening Oleksandr Striouk, head of the administration of Severodonetsk, worrying that the evacuation of civilians has now become “virtually impossible”.
The mayor of Severodonetsk, Oleksandre Striouk, confirmed on Monday that “the situation was changing every hour” and that “intense street fighting” was taking place in his city, under the spotlight for several days as the clashes took place there. concentrate.
For Russia, getting hold of this city would be decisive in order to conquer the entire vast coal basin of Donbass, already partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.