Russian forces reach key Ukraine city centre

Two children sit on a fragment of Russian rocket Tochka-U past a damaged tank at open air exposition of destroyed Russian equipment in the centre of Kyiv yesterday. (AFP)

Russian forces yesterday fought their way into the centre of the Ukrainian industrial city of Sievierodonetsk and appeared to be close to claiming a big prize in their offensive in the eastern Donbas region. After days of heavy fighting around Sievierodonetsk, much of which has been laid to waste by Russian artillery bombardments, Russian troops were inching forward through the city streets. “The enemy has entered the centre of Sievierodonetsk and is trying to take up positions. The situation is very difficult,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a briefing. “I do not want to evaluate or give any percentage of what we control and do not control. We know the enemy’s goals and are doing everything to prevent them from being achieved,” he said. If Russia captures the city and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it will hold all of Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists and a key war aim of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Provincial governor Serhiy Gaidai said 70% of the city was under Russian control, about 10-15% “a kind of grey zone” and the rest held by the Ukrainian defenders. “There have been some counter-attacks on separate streets,” he said. About 15,000 people remained in the city, he said. “There are civilians there in bomb shelters, there are quite a few of them left, most of whom did not wish to leave.” He also said that a Russian air strike hit the Azot chemical factory in Sievierodonetsk on Tuesday, blowing up a tank of toxic nitric acid and releasing a plume of pink smoke. Reuters could not independently confirm the cause of the incident. Gaidai said Lysychansk was easier to defend as it is located on a hill but Russian forces would target it with artillery and mortars once in full control of Sievierodonetsk. The leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, told TASS news agency that Russian proxies had advanced slower than expected to safeguard city infrastructure and “exercise caution around its chemical factories”. Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency which had long operated out of Sievierodonetsk, said up to 12,000 civilians remain trapped in the crossfire, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity.