The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, said early on Saturday that there are some 10 000 Russian troops in the eastern region.
“These are the (units) that are permanently in Luhansk region, that are trying to assault and are attempting to make gains in any direction they can,” Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Russian forces advance in the east, shifting momentum
Ukrainian forces may have to retreat from their last pocket in the Luhansk region to avoid being captured, a Ukrainian official said, as Russian troops press an advance in the east that has shifted the momentum of the three-month-old war.
A withdrawal could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of capturing eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions in full. His troops have gained ground in the two areas collectively known as the Donbas while blasting some towns to wastelands.
Gaidai, said Russian troops had entered Sievierodonetsk, the largest Donbas city still held by Ukraine, after trying to trap Ukrainian forces there for days, though adding that Russian forces would not be able to capture the Luhansk region “as analysts have predicted”.
“We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, it is possible that in order not to be surrounded we will have to retreat,” Gaidai said on Telegram.
Gaidai said 90% of buildings in Sievierodonetsk were damaged with 14 high-rises destroyed in the latest shelling.
Russia’s separatist proxies said they controlled Lyman, a railway hub west of Sievierodonetsk. Ukraine said Russia had captured most of Lyman but that its forces were blocking an advance to Sloviansk, to the southwest.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was protecting its land “as much as our current defence resources allow”. Ukraine’s military said it had repelled eight attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk on Friday, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles.
“If the occupiers think that Lyman and Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian,” Zelenskyy said in an address.
‘PERFORMED POORLY’
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had repelled eight assaults in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the previous 24 hours. Russia’s attacks included artillery assaults in the Sievierodonetsk area “with no success”, it said.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said while Russian forces had begun direct assaults on built-up areas of Sievierodonetsk, they would likely struggle to take ground in the city itself.
“Russian forces have performed poorly in operations in built-up urban terrain throughout the war,” they said.
Russian troops advanced after piercing Ukrainian lines last week in the city of Popasna, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Russian ground forces have captured several villages northwest of Popasna, Britain’s defence ministry said.
Reached by Reuters journalists in Russian-held territory on Thursday, Popasna was in ruins. The bloated body of a dead man in combat uniform could be seen lying in a courtyard.
Resident Natalia Kovalenko had left the cellar where she was sheltering in the wreckage of her flat, its windows and balcony boasted away. She said a shell hit the courtyard, killing two people and wounding eight.
“We are tired of being so scared,” she said.
Russia’s eastern gains follow the withdrawal of its forces from approaches to the capital, Kyiv, and a Ukrainiancounter-offensive that pushed its forces back from Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv.
Russian forces shelled parts of Kharkiv on Thursday for the first time in days killing nine people, authorities said. TheKremlin denies targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation”.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday while there was no new attack on the city, there were multiple Russian strikes on nearby communities and infrastructure.
In the south, where Moscow has seized a swath of territory since the February 24 invasion, including the port of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to impose permanent rule.
STRUGGLING TO LEAVE
In the Kherson region in the south, Russian forces were fortifying defences and shelling Ukraine-controlled areas, the region’s Ukrainian governor, Hennadiy Laguta, told media.
He said the humanitarian situation was critical in some areas and people were finding it very difficult to leave.
Police said 31 people had been evacuated on Friday from the Luhansk region, including 13 children.
Russia denies reports that it’s formally declared war against Ukraine
On the diplomatic front, European Union officials said a deal might be reached by Sunday to ban deliveries of Russian oil by sea, accounting for about 75% of the bloc’s supply, but not by pipeline, a compromise to win over Hungary and clear the way for new sanctions.
Zelenskyy has accused the EU of dithering over a ban on Russian energy, saying the bloc was funding Russia’s war and delay “merely means more Ukrainians being killed”.
In a telephone call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Putin stuck to his line that a global food crisis caused by the conflict can be resolved only if the West lifts sanctions.
Nehammer said Putin expressed readiness to discuss a prisoner swap with Ukraine but added: “If he is really ready to negotiate is a complex question.”
Both Russia and Ukraine are major grain exporters, and Russia’s blockade of ports has halted shipments, driving up global prices. Russia accuses Ukraine of mining the ports.
Russia justified its assault in part by ensuring Ukraine does not join the US-led NATO military alliance. But the war has pushed Sweden and Finland, both neutral throughout the Cold War, to apply to join NATO in one of the most significant changes in European security in decades.
ECONOMY
* The EU is seeking a deal this weekend to ban Russian oil deliveries by sea but not pipeline to win over Hungary. Zelenskyy has accused the EU of dithering.
* Russia will need huge financial resources to fund its military operation in Ukraine, its finance minister said. The economy minister blamed Russia’s economic troubles on low household spending.
* Russia said it paid coupons in foreign currency on two Eurobonds, a move that could mean it again averted default.
* S&P cut Ukraine’s credit rating to ‘CCC+/C’ from ‘B-/B’, citing a larger impact from Russia’s attack on the country.
Russia proposes joint refinery ventures cutting out ‘unreliable partners’
