Russian forces captured the city of Lyssychansk, the last Ukrainian-held stronghold in the Luhansk region. But Moscow does not intend to stop there.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine on Monday (July 4th) after conquering the entire Luhansk region. Russian forces “must carry out their missions according to the plans already approved”declared the president during an interview with his Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, broadcast on television. “I hope that in their sectors everything will happen as it happened in Luhansk”he added.
The evening before, the staff of the Ukrainian armed forces had announced its withdrawal from the city of Lysychansk – the last bastion held by the Ukrainians in the Luhansk region –, recognizing the “superiority” Russian troops on the ground. “We continue to defend a tiny part [du territoire] of the Luhansk region so that our army can” prepare a new line of defense, said Monday morning Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of this region. Sergei Shoigu claimed that Moscow’s forces were now in the process of “demining the city of Lysychansk”.
>> VIDEO. War in Ukraine: the city of Lysychansk fell into Russian hands
Lyssychansk was a centerpiece of the plan to conquer Donbass, a largely Russian-speaking industrial basin and partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. On Monday, a senior separatist official, Vitali Kiseliev, said that forces from Moscow were now advancing from two directions towards the locality of Siversk, on the way to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. These two major cities, located further west, are now shelled. As the front line draws closer, the Ukrainian authorities are now calling on the inhabitants of Sloviansk to leave the region, while trying to slow the advance of the Russian army.