Ukrainian forces kept their positions in heavy street fighting and bombardment day and night in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushed for control of the bombed city, a key to its goal of controlling eastern Ukraine. Sievierodonetsk and the twin city of Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, are the last parts of the Ukrainian-controlled province of Luhansk, which Russia is determined to occupy as one of its main military targets. Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday that the situation in Sievierodonetsk is “extremely complicated” and that Russian forces are concentrating all their forces in the region. “They are not rescuing their people, they are just sending men as food for cannons; they are bombing our army day and night,” Danilov told Reuters. Ukraine says its only hope of turning the tide in its favor in the small industrial city is more artillery to offset Russia’s enormous firepower. In a rare briefing from Sievierodonetsk, the commander of Ukraine’s Svoboda National Guard battalion, Petro Kusyk, said Ukrainians were dragging Russians into street battles to offset their artillery advantage. “Yesterday was a success for us – we started a counterattack and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. “In others they pushed us back, but only from one or two buildings,” he said in a television interview. But he said his forces were suffering from a “catastrophic” shortage of anti-battery artillery to fire on Russia, and that the acquisition of such weapons would transform the battlefield. Reuters could not verify the reports on the battlefield. In the south, where Russia is trying to impose its sovereignty over an area of occupied territory extending to the provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said it had seized new territory in a counterattack in the province of Kherson. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an afternoon speech that Ukraine had “some positive developments in the Zaporizhzhia region, where we are able to disrupt the plans of the occupiers.” He did not give details. MURAT YUKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS Reuters could not independently verify the ground situation in Zaporizhzhia or Kherson. Proxies set up by Russia in both provinces say they are planning referendums on joining Russia. Thousands have been killed and millions have been displaced since Russia launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “demilitarize” its neighbor on February 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked offensive war. Speaking in Moscow to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Russian Tsar Peter the Great, President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel between what he described as their historic quest to regain what he called Russian territory. “Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. He seemed to be at war with Sweden, he took something from them. “He did not take anything from them, he returned (whatever belonged to Russia),” Putin said. Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said about 10,000 civilians were still trapped in the city – about a tenth of its pre-war population. To the west of Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and the neighboring province of Donetsk. Russia bombed more than 20 cities in Donetsk and Luhansk on Thursday, destroying or destroying 49 homes, several production plants, farm buildings and a train station, the Ukrainian military said. Two civilians were killed, he said. Russia says it is not targeting civilians. In Soledar, a salt mining town near Bakhmut, near the front line, the buildings were turned into craters. The rest of the inhabitants, mostly the elderly, took refuge in a full cellar. Antonina, 65, had gone out to see her garden. “We live. We live here. We were born here,” he cried. “When will it all end?” In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, one of Russia’s proxies in eastern Ukraine, a court has sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan arrested while fighting for Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. Britain has condemned the court ruling as a “false decision” without legitimacy. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of cereals and petroleum products, and international attention has been focused in recent weeks on the threat of an international famine believed to be caused by Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. “Millions of people could starve if the Russian blockade of the Black Sea continues,” Zelensky said in a televised comment. Russia blames the food crisis on Western sanctions restricting its own grain exports. He says he is willing to let Ukrainian ports open for exports if Ukraine removes minefields and meets other conditions. Ukraine calls such offers empty promises. Students at Kharkiv School No. 134 celebrated their graduation with a dance performance in front of the ruins of their school, which was destroyed by fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in February. Reuters Our Morning and Afternoon Newsletters are compiled by Globe editors, giving you a brief overview of the day’s most important headlines. Register today.
