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A security member of a medical rescue team cleans his weapon in the Ukraine region. Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, June 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Reinforced Russian forces, supported by their air force, attacked a part of eastern Ukraine on Saturday, destroying bridges and firing artillery at buildings in their attempt to capture two towns, which if it happens will put ; He entered a disputed province under Moscow’s control, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russian and Ukrainian forces were fighting street by street in Sievierodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said. Due to the attacks, four people were killed, including a mother and a child, in the nearby town of Hirske, he said. Haidai.
The cities are the main areas of the Luhansk province still held by Ukraine. The Russian offensive is crucial to the Kremlin’s war schedule because it is under pressure to capture the entire Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists are fighting. They have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years and established self-proclaimed republics.
Russia also intensified their offensive in Donetsk, the other province that makes up Donbas, indicated the Ukrainian army, at a time when the war has been 101 days old. In a reflection of the close range of the fighting, Russian and Ukrainian military officials blamed each other for a fire that destroyed the town. the main church in the Sviatohirsk monastery, one of the holiest sites of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine.
In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday Russia for “deliberately destroying the Ukrainian culture and its historical legacy as well as like its social infrastructure and housing, everything necessary for a normal life.”
In recent days, Russian forces have concentrated on capturing Sievierodonetsk, which before the war had about 100,000 inhabitants. At one point, the Russians controlled 90% of the city, but Ukrainian soldiers have regained some ground, Haidai said on Friday. Zelenskyy pointed to on Saturday that the situation in the city is “extremely difficult”.