Serhiy Haidai said overnight that Russia had said 568 civilians were trapped at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, the last Ukrainian-held town in the city on the east bank of the Siverskyi Donets River. Neighboring Lysychansk on the West Bank was bombed “en masse”, Haidai added – while analysts warned of a nearby Russian discovery that meant the invading forces were 4 miles (7 km) southeast of the city. Konrad Muzyka, a military analyst, said the situation in Lysychansk seemed “increasingly bleak for Ukrainians” as the Russians broke through the defensive lines near the villages of Toshkivka and Ustynivka to the south. Haidai acknowledged that “the situation on the entire Luhansk front is extremely difficult” in an earlier post on his Telegram channel, saying Russia was launching “a large-scale attack” using reserve forces. Rodion Mirosnik, the ambassador of the self-proclaimed republic in Luhansk, Russia, said its forces were “advancing south to Lysikhansk” and predicted an imminent victory. “The coming hours will have to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the region,” he told the Telegram. The occupation of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk would give Russia almost the entire Luhansk region, one of the two Donbas regions. Moscow’s goal may be to prove to the West that it can achieve a military victory in the run-up to the EU, G7 and NATO summits, which follow in a row on Thursday. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted that Russia would intensify its attacks ahead of the EU summit. “This whole area is the most difficult, there are the toughest battles.” Muzyka said Ukraine should have withdrawn from Sievierodonetsk some time ago and focused on Lysychansk’s defense, which is at a higher altitude than its close neighbor and is theoretically easier to defend. But the lateral advance along the river from the southeast threatens it now. Drone footage shows artillery shelling in the Ukrainian village of Toshkivka, where Russian forces have broken through the lines of defense. Photo: Video taken by Reuters / Reuters The two sides have been embroiled in an increasingly intense battle over the past six weeks for Sievierodonetsk, with thousands of casualties. Ukraine has almost certainly suffered more from the prolonged artillery bombardment by the Russians that has destroyed dozens of buildings. A key adviser to Zelensky’s office hinted overnight that Ukraine had launched rocket attacks on three gas platforms in the Black Sea on Monday. Oleksiy Arestovych warned that Russia could react by striking “decision-making centers in Kyiv” and urged residents, especially in the central districts, not to ignore the air raid sirens in the coming days. Russian officials said Monday that Ukraine had fired missiles at gas platforms in the Black Sea south of Odessa, which Kyiv believes are being used for military reconnaissance and control of much of the water. Seven people are missing and three injured after the strikes, the head of the occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Monday. One of the platforms that was hit remained on fire, a Russian politician told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday, and the flames were still detected by NASA’s fire information platform in the area. The three offshore platforms, the Boyko Towers, were seized from Moscow by Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian sources say they are not used for gas extraction, although Russia has said otherwise and RIA Novosti reported that the fire had spread to the well. in the worst hit. platform. Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would further strengthen its armed forces as a result of “potential military threats” in a speech to a group of graduates of Russian military academies. “We will continue to develop and strengthen our armed forces, taking into account potential military threats and dangers,” he said. Putin added that the Russian military is supplying the S-500 surface-to-air missile system and said that Russia will develop the newly tested Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of more than 10 nuclear warheads, this year. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian television was now broadcasting throughout the occupied area of Kherson in the south, which was occupied by the invaders in the first week of the war. It is the last step in a forced Russianization of the occupied territories of Ukraine, where Russia has tried to issue passports, introduce the ruble, ask teachers to change curricula and other measures. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Two U.S. volunteer soldiers captured in fighting north of Kharkiv a fortnight ago were filmed by Russian television at a detention center in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, some distance from where they were taken. Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, both from Alabama, were fighting as part of the Ukrainian army. The US State Department said it knew the film and “watched closely”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said in an interview with NBC News that the men “should be held accountable for the crimes they have committed” and are not covered by the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Prisoners of War. Three other foreign fighters, Britain’s Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, were sentenced to death by a Donetsk court earlier this month, although they have time to appeal. Russia does not carry out the death penalty, but the separatist democracy, which is not recognized by the West, does.
