Ukraine war: Five things you need to know on Monday
Russia’s military kept on grinding down Ukraine’s defences on Monday, with combat in eastern areas said to be entering a “decisive” phase.
In Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which in recent weeks has become the focal point of Moscow’s attempt to impose its will on its neighbour, battles raged for the control of multiple villages around Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, the local governor Serhiy Haidai said.
Pro-Moscow separatists claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk. Ukraine acknowledged the Russian success there, and also confirmed a Russian claim to have captured Metyolkine on Sievierodonetsk's eastern outskirts.
Haidai described the situation in Sievierodonetsk as “very difficult,” with the Ukrainian forces maintaining control over just one area — the Azot chemical plant, where a number of Ukrainian fighters, along with about 500 civilians, are taking shelter.
The Russians keep deploying additional troops and equipment, he wrote. “It’s just hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire, the shelling doesn’t stop even for an hour.”
Although Russian shelling and airstrikes on the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk have intensified, Haidai said, the staunch Ukrainian resistance is preventing Moscow from deploying its resources to other parts of the country.
Only a fraction of 100,000 people who used to live in the key industrial city before the war remain, with no electricity, communications, food or medicine.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the Kremlin had ordered the Russian military to overrun the entire Luhansk region by next Sunday. Currently, Moscow’s forces control about 95% of the region.
Maliar
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