Battle with Russia continues in Severodonetsk, Ukraine

Ukrainian forces were once again pushed back to the outskirts of Severodonetsk Wednesday, the latest pendulum swing in the bloody back-and-forth that is quickly becoming one of the war’s most brutal battles.

As of Wednesday night local time, Russia controlled most of the city, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram.

He said Ukrainian forces held the small city’s industrial sector, and that fighting continued in the streets.

Haidai added that the city of Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donets from Severodonetsk, was still firmly under Ukrainian control, and there was “no threat” that Ukrainian forces would become surrounded.

In an interview with Ukrainian outlet RBC, Haidai said he hoped Lysychansk — which is on higher ground than Severodonestk — would hold until Ukraine could place more long range weapons in the city to push back Russian artillery.

The twin cities straddling the Siverskyi Donets have been subjected to constant bombardment for weeks. More than 90% of Severodonetsk is thought to have been destroyed in the shelling.

“The shelling is so powerful here that the dead lie for weeks, they cannot even be taken away and sometimes buried,” Haidai told RBC. “There were cases when people who tried to go out and pick up the dead themselves died under shelling.”

Severodonetsk, 90 miles from the Russian border and once home to more than 100,000 people, has been largely evacuated; between 10,000 and 15,000 civilians remain.

The tide has turned multiple times in the past two weeks as the Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded control of the city center.

Last week, Ukrainian soldiers began to pull out of the city for defensive positions in Lysychansk. But over the weekend, a Ukrainian counterattack made significant gains, reportedly pushing the Russians out of half of Severodonetsk.

Russian forces responded this week with reinforcements and increased artillery fire, driving the Ukrainians back to the outskirts of the city over the past 48 hours.

Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last Ukrainian-held positions in Luhansk, one of the two Ukrainian states that make up the industrial heartland known as the Donbas region.