Severodonetsk is the largest city of the Donbas that is still in Ukrainian hands. Russia must conquer her in order to declare victory in the eastern region of Luhansk. The Russian war machine has therefore been moving from three sides at once in the direction of the city, which not only has great symbolic importance, but is also important as a railway junction and springboard to other parts of Ukraine.
On its way to this junction, Russia claims to have captured Lyman, a town 60 kilometers west of Severodonetsk, this weekend. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the highway to Severodonetsk is now also in Russian hands, so that the city is completely surrounded. This message was immediately contradicted by Ukraine. Images appeared on the internet of Ukrainian soldiers on that highway near burned-out Russian tanks.
Those images proved that fierce fighting had taken place over the highway. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that “indescribably difficult battles” were raging around Severodonetsk. The army command spoke of “tough defensive positions” that the Ukrainians had taken around the city.
The slow but unstoppable advance of the Russian army in the east has been dampened by the Ukrainian army’s previous successes at Kyiv and Kharkiv, and after the battle for Mariupol where the Russians were held back for nearly three months. The Ukrainian army reported a small offensive in the southern region near Kherson on Saturday evening. On this front, the Russians would have been forced to withdraw from a number of villages.
tempered bravado
President Zelensky’s tone is more somber than before. His bravado has been tempered, and this weekend he admitted for the first time that the areas annexed by Russia in 2014 – Crimea and parts of the Donbas – “cannot be recaptured by military means” as he had previously claimed. This would take hundreds of thousands of lives, the president said.
His appeal to the West to quickly send more and heavier weapons sounded more urgent than ever: “Much now depends on our partners in the West and their willingness to provide Ukraine with whatever it takes to protect freedom,” he said. .
Zelensky’s hopes were pinned on the guns pouring in: “I expect good news this week.” He didn’t say what that good news was, but it’s widely believed that his comment is related to the missile installations promised by US President Joe Biden: mobile missile systems (MLRS) that can fire arrays of medium-range missiles.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said long-carrying howitzers from the United States were beginning to arrive, as well as “harpoon” anti-ship missiles and howitzers from Denmark, “enough to sink the entire Russian fleet.”
Russification
This weekend Russia took the next step towards ‘Russification’ of conquered territory: it reopened the port of Mariupol. For days it had cleared explosives and mines, after which the first ship was able to enter. This ship is said to be loading 2,700 tons of steel and sailing to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don. Ukraine points out that the steel in the port of Mariupol is Ukrainian property, accusing Russia of piracy, theft and looting.