Ukraine claims on Sunday to have taken back “half” of Severodonetsk, a key city in the east of its territory and current epicenter of fierce fighting with the Russian army in the vast coal basin of Donbass, but says to expect a counter – major attack next.
kyiv, which was resuming a semblance of normal life, was hit at dawn by several Russian strikes, the first since the end of April. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Over the past few hours, each side has claimed to be making progress in Severodonetsk. Its capture would be a major asset for the Russians who want to control all of Donbass, part of which pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow have held since 2014.
In the next five days there will be a sharp increase in the number of heavy artillery bombardments
But on Sunday, the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergiï Gaïdaï, announced that Ukrainian forces had “cleared half” of Severodonetsk of the Russian troops who were there.
“Half the city is under the control of our defenders,” he assured in an interview broadcast on social networks.
But he said he expected a Russian counterattack: “In the next five days, there will be a sharp increase in the number of heavy artillery bombardments,” said Mr. Gaïdaï.
For the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the dynamic has changed and now Ukrainian forces are “successfully slowing down […] the Russian assaults on Severodonetsk through careful and effective local counter-attacks”.
Explosions in Kyiv
In kyiv, several explosions took place at dawn in the districts of Darnytsky and Dniprovsky (south-east of the Ukrainian capital).
“I heard about six explosions at 5:57 a.m.,” Natalia, 72, who was awakened by the shelling, told Agence France-Presse.
One injured person was hospitalized, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram. She quickly left the hospital during the day.
A 10-story building had all its windows smashed. Not far away, a woman cleaned broken glass in the street in front of a cultural center whose windows were also blown by the explosions.
The airstrikes targeted a freight car repair workshop in the south-east of kyiv, 10 km from the city center, according to Russia, which claims to have destroyed armored vehicles supplied to Ukraine by countries of Eastern Europe.
“High-precision, long-range missiles fired […] on the outskirts of kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles that were in hangars,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Ukrainian officials and witnesses on the spot denied this.
“This is another example of Russian-made falsification to justify this brutal war against Ukraine,” Serhii Leshchenko, deputy director of the Ukrainian railway company’s supervisory board, told AFP.
In the evening, AFP was able to see the destruction of several hangars and a large crater caused by a shell, while firefighters were still trying to control a small fire.
“The aggressor continues to launch missiles and conduct airstrikes on military and civilian infrastructure of our country, especially in Kyiv,” the Ukrainian army general staff wrote on its Facebook page.
According to the Ukrainian air force, several cruise missiles were fired in the direction of kyiv by Russian TU-95 planes based in the Caspian Sea, one of which was destroyed.
The capital, around which the Russian noose had loosened in late March-early April, had not been hit since April 28, the day of the visit of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The Ukrainian company Energoatom, which manages the country’s nuclear power plants, for its part declared that a missile had flown at an “extremely low level above the Pivdenno-Ukrayinska power plant”, in the Mykolaiv region (south), denouncing “an act of nuclear terrorism”.
“Need constant support”
Ukraine needs “constant” military support from Western countries, not “one-off” aid, until it wins victory over Moscow’s forces, its deputy minister of security said on Sunday. Defense, Ganna Malyar.
Shortly after the strikes on kyiv, the Russian president warned that Moscow would strike new targets if the West supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, which he said was aimed at “prolonging the conflict”.
In the event of such deliveries, Russia would hit “sites that we have not targeted so far”, Putin told the Rossiya 1 TV channel, without further details.
These statements come a few days after the United States announced its decision to deliver Himars multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine, with a range of about 80 km.
Military experts point out that this range is slightly greater than that of similar Russian systems, which would allow kyiv forces to strike enemy artillery while remaining out of reach.
Fights on other fronts
Fighting continues on other fronts as well. According to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, “Russia continues to make efforts to occupy our entire state”.
The Kremlin dreams, assured Oleksiï Reznikov, of “gathering the lands” which it considers “its”, including “Poland, the Baltic countries, Slovakia and others”.
Crimea, Donbass, southern Ukraine: in total, Russia has tripled, since the start of the invasion, the area of Ukrainian territory under its control, reaching 125,000 km², or 20% of the country, according to the Ukrainian president , Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sunday evening, on the lawn of Cardiff, the Ukrainians will try to win another victory, the one that would qualify the national team for the World Cup.
“We all understood that the game against Wales will not be about fitness or tactics, but about survival. Everyone will fight for this and give everything, ”explained defender Oleksandr Zinchenko, as if to better unite with the Ukrainian soldiers, failing to be able to fight alongside them.