Where does Russia stand after fall of Ukrainian city's last bridge leaves no escape route for residents?

Russia-Ukraine war: The last of three bridges that connected the city of Severodonetsk to the rest of Ukraine has been blown up. There is now no way to evacuate the citizens or send aid by road to the city as the regions to the north west and east have been taken over by Russian forces.

Residents of the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk have now been effectively cut off from the rest of the country with the fall of the last of the three bridges linking it with its twin city — Lysychansk. This means that Russia now controls a majority of Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk Oblast, which is populated largely by separatists.

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Severdonetsk Governor Serhiy Haidai said evacuation and supplies to the city are now impossible as the last bridge over the Siverskyi Donets river near Syrotyne SE no longer stands. In a Telegram post, Haidai said: “Those remaining in the city were being forced to survive in extremely difficult conditions".

The governor of the territories controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the Lugansk region Serhiy Gaidai said that the second bridge between Lisichansk and Severodonetsk had been destroyed. pic.twitter.com/dE14SMQXdO

With the fall of the last bridge, the situation has become quite grim for the remaining Ukrainian soldiers still fighting in the city. Eduard Basurin, a military representative of the pro-Russian ‘Donetsk People's Republic’, said, “Ukrainian divisions that are there [in Severodonetsk] are there forever.” “They must surrender or die,” he said.