Sievierodonetsk is currently under heavy fire from Russian forces, and the demands of the Ukrainian authorities to the West are becoming more and more pressing. They demand “long range” artillery to retake the industrial city from the Luhansk regionbut this objective seems more than ambitious.
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Is the fate of Donbass linked to the fate of Sievierodonetsk? Currently, Russia has regained ground there, and Ukrainian soldiers are delivering one of the “toughest battles” since the start of the war to resist Russian forces which now control much of the city, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
>> War in Ukraine: how the Russian army wins the city of Sievierodonetsk in the Donbass
Ukraine needs a win over Russia “on the battlefield” before any peace negotiations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the British daily Financial Times on Tuesday, June 7. “For the moment, we cannot move forward in a powerful way” without suffering heavy losses, he stressed, calling on Ukraine’s Western allies to provide more weapons to his country.
The government is constantly appealing to Westerners. Sergueiï Gaïdaï, governor of this region of eastern Ukraine, affirmed on June 9 that Ukraine could retake the key city of Sievierodonetsk “in two, three days”as soon as it has “long-range” Western artillery weapons.
In a battle, the main interest of these guns is the protection of those who use them. The range is so great that they are beyond the reach of opponents. This is why General Vincent Desportes, former director of the School of War and author of the strategy book Aim for the top, doubts the sincerity of the Ukrainian request. Above all, he sees it as an excuse to get a head start. “They are probably playing on the importance of this battle to speed up the delivery of armaments which will be especially useful in pushing the Russians back to the east.he believes. You don’t really recapture a city with artillery.”
“Unless the Ukrainians themselves decide to raze their own town, the recapture of Sievierodonetsk will be primarily an infantry fight.”
General Vincent Desportes, former director of the School of Warat franceinfo
An almost hand-to-hand combat specifies General Desportes. He also sees an explanation for the delays in the delivery of rocket launchers by the Americans and the British. Washington and London fear that they will be used to strike directly on Russian soil, thus involving Westerners a little more.