Ukraine’s Sievierodonetsk falls to Russia after one of war’s bloodiest fights

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Russian troops fully occupy the city of East Ukraine, Sievierodonetsk on Saturday, both sides say, confirming the decline of the Kyiv’s biggest battlefield for more than a month after a few weeks of some of the most bloody battles of war.

Ukraine called her retreat from the city as a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from a higher land in Lysychansk on the edge of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatist said Moscow’s troops were now attacking Lysychansk.

The fall of Sieverseodonetsk – was once home to more than 100,000 people but now Russia’s biggest victory has been the biggest victory of the Port of Marieupol last month. This changes the battlefield in the East after weeks where the big advantage of Moscow in shooting only produces slow profits

Russia will now try to move forward and take more land in the opposite bank, while Ukraine will hope that the price paid by Moscow to capture the ruins of the small city will make Russian troops vulnerable to counterattacks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swores in the video address that Ukraine will win the missing cities, including Sievierodonetsk. But acknowledging the emotional victim of war, he said: “We do not have a long feeling that it will survive, how many blows, losses, and efforts that will be needed before we see the victory is on the horizon.”

This city is now under the full occupation of Russia,” said Mayor Sievierodonetsk Oleksandr Stryuk on national television. “They try to set their own orders, as far as I know they have pointed out a kind of commander.

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Reuters that Ukraine was doing “tactical merging” by withdrawing his troops out of Sievierodonetsk.

Russia uses tactics … used in Mariupol: wiping the city from the face of the earth, “he said.” Given the condition, holding defense in the ruins and open fields is no longer possible. So Ukraine forces left for a higher place to continue defense operations. “

The Russian Ministry of Defense said “as a result of successive operations” Russian troops have built full control over Sievierodonetsk and Borivske City nearby.

However, not long after that, Ukraine’s shooting from outside Sievierodonetsk forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from chemical plant there, the Russian Tass News Agency quoted local police who worked with Russian separatist authorities.

Oleksiy Aestovych, a senior advisor to Zelenskyy, said that some Ukraine special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk to direct artillery shots against Russia. But he did not mention the forces that put up direct resistance.

The Russian Interfax news agency quoted representatives of pro-Russian separatist fighters who said Russian and Pro-Russian troops had entered Lysychansk across the river and fought in urban areas there.

Russia also launched a missile attack in Ukraine on Saturday. At least three people were killed and the others might have been buried in the debris in Sarny City, around 185 miles (300 km) to the west of Kyiv, after the rocket crashed into cash and car repair facilities, said local local military head of the local administration.