Kyiv - The Russian-battered eastern Ukrainian city of faces "very fierce" fighting from Russian troops who have entered the outskirts of the city, the regional governor said on Monday.
Sievierodonetsk has become the focus of Moscow's offensive, with the governor saying that “the city has been completely ruined.”
Fierce street fighting is underway in the city as Ukrainian defenders are trying to push the Russians out, Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told Associated Press in a phone interview.
“The number of victims is rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting,” the mayor added. He said 12,000-13,000 civilians left in the city that once held more than 100,000 are sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape the Russian bombardment.
Russia has concentrated its firepower on the last major population centre still held by Ukrainian forces in the eastern Luhansk province, after trying unsuccessfully to encircle it, in a push to achieve one of President Vladimir Putin's stated objectives after three months of war.
Sievierodonetsk, 143 kilometers (89 miles) south of the Russian border, has emerged in recent days as the epicenter of the Donbas fighting. Mariupol is the city on the Sea of Azov that spent nearly three months under Russian siege before the last Ukrainian fighters surrendered.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacts as he visits the war-hit Kharkiv region. Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as "indescribably difficult." The "Russian army is trying to squeeze at least some result" by concentrating its attacks there, he said in a Saturday night video address/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
Zelensky on Sunday visited soldiers in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where Ukrainian fighters pushed Russian forces back from nearby positions several weeks ago. Russia has kept up bombardment of the northeastern city, and explosions could be heard shortly after Zelensky’s visit. Shelling and airstrikes have destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels for an extraordinary summit Monday afternoon to discuss a total ban on Russian oil imports. While landlocked countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic have asked for longer phase-out periods, due to their dependence on Russian pipeline oil, Hungary is widely seen as the main obstacle to a deal.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky will address the EU summit and push for new sanctions against Russia.
-AP/Reuters/BBC