Fierce fight for the last Ukrainian city in Donbas grinds on

Russian forces now management two-thirds of the key Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, a neighborhood official confirmed Saturday, as combating nonetheless raged in its jap industrial zone.

“The situation remains difficult,” stated Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk area. “Fighting continues, but unfortunately, most of the city is under Russian control. Some positional battles are taking place in the streets.”

The takeover of Luhansk, which makes up the Donbas together with the neighboring Donetsk area, has turn into Russia’s main goal since its forces have been repulsed from the capital of Kyiv.

The ongoing battle for Severodonetsk, the last unoccupied city in Luhansk, has turn into more and more bloody in current days.

Ukrainian forces there are combating “for every house and every street,” Haidai stated. 

But he pushed back against a report that as much as 400 Ukrainian troopers and 500 civilians holed up in the city’s Azot chemical plant have been surrounded by invading troops, calling the rumor “lies disseminated by Russian propagandists.”

Analysts at Britain’s Ministry of Defense stated that Russian troops had failed to advance into the south of Severodonetsk, including that “both sides are likely suffering high numbers of casualties.”

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that his nation is “definitely going to prevail in this war that Russia has started.”

Speaking remotely to delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Zelensky stated stopping Russian aggression was vital to guard worldwide order.

“It is on the battlefields of Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided, along with the boundaries of the possible,” he declared.

In different developments Saturday:

• Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych stated that about 10,000 of its troopers have been killed in the first 100 days after the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24, the BBC reported.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Zelensky in Kyiv to proceed talks on Ukraine’s request to affix the European Union. She will attain a call on whether or not to suggest Ukraine as a candidate for membership subsequent week, she stated.
• Russia issued its first passports to residents of the occupied cities of Melitopol and Kherson, handing out 23 of the paperwork as a part of its persevering with “Russification” effort there.

The Ukrainian prosecutor basic’s office issued new estimates of the ongoing civilian carnage, the Kyiv Independent reported, discovering that not less than 287 children have been killed in the conflict and 492 injured — noting that the figures are anticipated to rise as combating grinds on.

Meanwhile, Russia vowed to meet the buildup of NATO forces in Poland with “proportionate” measures.

“A response, as always, will be proportionate and appropriate, intended to neutralize potential threats to the security of the Russian Federation,” stated Oleg Tyapkin, a Russian Foreign Ministry official.