Russian forces had the numerical advantage but Ukraine had “every chance” to fight back, President Voldymyr Zelenskyy said after a regional official suggested Kyiv had lost ground. Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia was throwing troops and equipment into its drive to capture Sievierodonetsk, the largest remaining Ukrainian-held city in the Donbas region’s Luhansk province. The Ukrainian defenders had over the weekend pushed back the Russians just as they appeared to be on the verge of victory. But the Ukrainian position had again become more perilous on Monday morning, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai told state television.
“Our defenders managed to undertake a counter-attack for a certain time, they liberated almost half of the city. But now the situation has worsened a little for us again,” Gaidai said.
City mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said street fighting was raging and neither side was preparing to withdraw. “We have focused enough forces and resources there to beat back attacks on the city,” Stryuk said. Both sides say they have inflicted huge casualties on each other.
The city has become the main target of the Russian offensive in Ukraine’s Donbas region – made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces -as the Kremlin’s invasion of the country grinds on in a war of attrition that has seen whole cities laid waste by Russian artillery bombardments.