On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed that his country’s forces had taken full control of residential areas in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, where heavy fighting has recently taken place.
Shoigu added that Russia is sending additional troops to control the entire city: “Our forces have strengthened their positions and are holding the front line.”
In the same context, Alexander Strioker, the mayor of Severodonetsk, said on Tuesday that the city’s defenders are doing everything they can to maintain their positions on the front lines, where the situation is still, in his words, “extremely difficult.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the Ukrainian forces defending the city were “holding their ground” despite the Russians being “bigger and stronger,” adding that the situation on the eastern front was “difficult.”
On the other hand, British intelligence reported that Russia made progress in the southern direction of Bubasna in May last year, but its advance in the region stalled last week.
She also pointed out that Russia will almost certainly need to achieve a breakthrough in at least one of these areas in order to achieve its main goal of control over the entire Donetsk region.
On the other hand, pro-Moscow separatist authorities in Donetsk have reported that 10 people have been killed and 17 injured in Ukrainian artillery shelling over the past 24 hours.
Russia now controls about 125,000 square kilometers of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said, or 20 percent of the country’s territory.
Because of its strategic importance to Russia and Ukraine, the eastern city of Severodonetsk has become a turning point in the war as violent clashes take place between the two sides for control of the economic city.
