KYIV: Volodymyr President Zelensky said Ukrainian troops were involved in fierce streets with Russian troops in the Severodonetsk industrial city, an important battle in Kremlin’s efforts to control the East Donbas region.
“Our hero did not release a position in Severodonetsk. In the city, fierce streets continued,” Zelensky said in his night video address on Monday.
And Donbas Ukraine stood, standing strong,” he added referring to the area where Severodonetsk was.
It is unclear which side is superior, with “the situation changes from hour to hour”, Oleksandr Stryuk, Head of Administration in Severodonetsk, said on television.
The city has become the main target of Russia’s offensive in Donbas – consisting of Luhanansk and Donetsk provinces – when the Kremlin invasion moves in the friction war that has seen cities was wrapped in a series of artillery.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Russia also threw troops and equipment on its way to capture the largest city controlled by Ukraine in Luhanansk.
Luhanansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Monday on Monday that the situation had deteriorated after the defenders of Ukraine pushed Russia again during the weekend because they looked close to victory.
In the night update, the Ukraine military said two civilians were killed in Russian shootings in the Donetsk and Luhanansk regions on Monday and that Russian troops had shot more than 20 communities.
Reuters cannot independently verify the war report. Russia has denied targeting civilians in conflict.
Russia said that he was on a mission to “free” Donbas – partly held by Moscow separatist proxies since 2014 – after Ukraine forces pushed his troops back from the capital of Kyiv and the second city of Ukraine, Kharkiv in the early stages of the war.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but called his action as a “special military operation” to remove what he saw as a threat to his safety. Ukraine and its allies -Western allies said this was an unfounded pretext for war to achieve areas that were at risk of turning into broader European conflicts.
Constant shooting
The Ukraine Ministry of Defense said on Monday that Russian troops also advanced to Sloviansk, which is located about 85 km (53 miles) to the west of Severodonetsk.
The frontline is under the shooting continuously,” Regional Governor Donetsk Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukraine television.
The enemy also shot near Lyman with the aim of destroying our defensive position and advancing on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. There was also a Svyatohirsk shooting with the same goal.”
Kyrylenko said efforts were being made to evacuate people from several cities, several attacks under the day and night, including Sloviansk which had around 24,000 residents still there.
People now understand, even though it’s too late, it’s time to leave,” he said.
In a step coordinated with the United States, Britain said it would supply Ukraine with a multi-launch rocket system that could attack the target of up to 80 km (50 miles), providing a more precise distance shot needed to reach Russian Russian artillery batteries, components The key to the Moscow battle plan.
Zelensky said Kyiv gradually accepted the “specific anti-capal system”, and that this would be the best way to end the Russian Black Sea Port of Ukraine which prevented the export of seeds.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond to the sending of western long distance weapons by encouraging Ukrainian troops to the back from the Russian border.
On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would attack a new target if the west supplies long -distance missiles. On the same day, Russian missiles hit Kyiv for the first time in more than a month.
The United States, who reopen its embassy in Kyiv in May after closing almost three months, said the posture of his embassy in the capital of Ukraine remained unchanged.
On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that he had slapped personal sanctions on 61 US officials including the Secretary of the Treasury and Energy and Executive of Defense and Prominent Media. That step, he said, was a revenge for “continuing to expand the U.S.” sanctions.
