Russian forces fought on Monday to take Lysychansk, the last major city still held by Ukrainian troops in the eastern province of Luhansk, after Moscow-backed separatists said they were advancing on multiple fronts.
After the Kremlin campaign’s victory, Lysychansk’s sister city, Sievierodonetsk, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting, fell to pro-Russian forces on Saturday.
Russian missiles also hit Kiev for the first time in weeks on Sunday, attacks denounced as “barbarity” by US President Joe Biden.
The Tass news agency on Sunday quoted a separatist official as saying Moscow’s troops had penetrated Lysychansk from five directions and were isolating Ukrainian defenders. Reuters, however, could not confirm the report.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces used artillery to seal off Lysychansk from the south, but made no mention of separatists moving into the city.
Russian strike aircraft crashed near Lysychansk, the general staff added in its update on Monday.
“Lysychansk, it was an abomination last week,” said Elena, an elderly woman from the city, who was among the dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from frontline areas in the Ukrainian-occupied city of Pokrovsk.
“I already told my husband that if I die, please bury me behind the house,” she added.
The RIA agency quoted a separatist official as saying separatist forces had evacuated more than 250 people, including children, from the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk on Sunday.
The industrial area was the last part of Sievierodonetsk to be held by Ukrainian troops before their withdrawal.
Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk make up the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine – the industrial heart of the country.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said missiles also hit the central city of Cherkasy on Sunday, hitting a strategic bridge connecting western Ukraine and the eastern battlefields.
“They are trying to limit the transfer of our reserves and western weapons to the east,” he told Reuters.
Odessa regional government spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said a rocket attack in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine had destroyed residential buildings and set fires. Six people were injured, including a child, he added.
Ukraine needs a modern air defense system to deter Russian missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a speech Sunday evening, after missiles previously hit an apartment building and close to a kindergarten in Ukraine. capital Kyiv.
“Partners should act faster if they are really partners, not observers. Delays in arms transfers to our state, any restrictions – this is basically an invitation for Russia to strike again and again,” he added.
The United States is likely to announce the purchase of an advanced medium-to-long-range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine this week, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Biden called Sunday’s strikes in Kiev an act of “barbarity” as leaders of the Group of Seven countries met for a summit in Germany.