Acommand centre to scan the digital realm for global disinformation campaigns. Standardised plugs for electric cars that will work both in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 28 that the situation in the east of the country was "indescribably difficult.
Russian forces appear to be closing in on their goal of seizing the entire Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, Western military analysts say, as a battle continues for control of Severodonetsk, the last big city in the region not under Russian occupation.
Capturing Severodonetsk would be a symbolic victory for the Kremlin. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops are holding on in an “indescribably difficult” situation. Local officials said Russian bombardment had destroyed city’s water, gas and electricity infrastructure and Russian troops were contained at a hotel on the eastern outskirts.
Russia has also claimed its forces control Lyman, a key transport hub, which Western officials have said would give Russia an advantage in the potential next phase of the Donbas offensive. While Britain’s Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian forces have probably captured most of the city, Ukraine has yet to confirm Russia has control.
In his Saturday night address, Zelensky called on partners in the West to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons to give Kyiv a technological edge over Moscow and that he expected “good news” in the coming days. The Biden administration is preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Ukraine, administration officials and congressional staffers told The Washington Post.
Russian shelling on May 26 in the city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine, in the eastern Donbas region. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
The contested eastern city of Severodonetsk is still controlled by Ukraine, the Luhansk regional governor said Sunday morning in his latest update on Telegram.
“The enemy is not succeeding,” said Serhiy Haidai, adding that Russian forces remain stuck in the Hotel Myr on the eastern outskirts of the city. “Moreover, they are experiencing losses there because our [troops] are constantly shelling them there and knocking them out of the hotel. For now, they are hiding there, but they cannot proceed further.”
He rejected Russia’s claims that it captured the whole city. “Our boys are holding the line of defense. Severodonetsk is ours,” he said.
Haidai also said that Russian shelling of the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway, southwest of Severodonetsk, has decreased after the Ukrainians managed to push the enemy back farther east “by a few kilometers.”
Severodonetsk is one of the last big cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, and its capture would enable Russia to trumpet a victory after weeks of battlefield attrition. Only an estimated 10,000 people, one-tenth of its prewar population, remain in the city, and they have taken shelter in basements from Russian bombardment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that it is impractical for Ukraine to use force to regain all territory lost to Russia since 2014.
“I don’t believe we can regain all of our territory by military action,” he said in an interview with Dutch TV channel NOS. “If we decided to do that, it would cost us hundreds of thousands of lives.”
“We want to fight to the last gasp, but not to the last man,” he said.
Zelensky accused Russian forces of not caring about how many people they lose and said that, for him, “a victory without people around you” is no victory.
Zelensky said the only person worth negotiating with on the Russian side is President Vladimir Putin. “There are no other people with whom you can make agreements. The other people are nothing. He decides everything,” he said.
Zelensky also reiterated his position that no such talks are possible until Ukraine regains control over all areas occupied by Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and large areas in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine have been in the hands of pro-Russian separatist forces since then.