The last major city Ukraine owns in the heavily disputed eastern province of Luhansk has fallen, military officials on both sides said Sunday, marking a milestone in Moscow’s campaign to conquer the Donbas, the mineral-rich region bordering Russia and long since no longer exists. in the crosshairs of President Vladimir V. Putin.
The industrial city of Lysychansk, on a hill overlooking the Siversky Donets River, had held out for a week after Russia took control of Sievierodonetsk, its sister city across the river. But when Russia flooded Lysychansk with artillery fire and strangled its supply lines, building on months of bombing raids and weeks of fierce street fighting that reduced both cities to gray chaff, Ukrainian defenders were forced to retreat.
That caused Russian soldiers to pose for photos outside Lysychansk City Hall, chanting “Lysychansk is ours” and waving the flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic – the pro-Moscow separatist state Mr Putin claimed to protect back then. his troops invaded Ukraine, a video posted to Twitter on Sunday showed.
Western military analysts had expressed little doubt that Moscow would ultimately triumph in the twin cities, but their undeniable loss doubled the pressure on the United States and its allies to get the more powerful weapons they had promised Ukraine at the front. For nations in the West, however, the next phase of the war will be a test not only of military logistics, but also of solidarity. As the conflict continues, their own citizens feel the economic pain, and unity among the allies can be difficult to sustain.
Russia now faces new challenges of its own. It controls more than a fifth of Ukraine — many of them towns in name only, skeletal remains stripped of humans after months of shelling — but it will have to replenish depleted forces and ammunition as it fights what promises to be a fierce, drawn-out battle. ground war.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that Lysychansk was wholly Russian-owned. At a press conference with the Australian Prime Minister, who visited Kiev, Mr. Zelensky that there was fighting on the outskirts of the city.
But videos on social media appeared to show Russian troops in the city center, and residents fleeing the region in recent days said the bulk of Ukrainian troops in Lysychansk left on Friday.
Hours after the Russian army declared victory in the city, the Ukrainian army acknowledged that it had withdrawn its troops there. “Continuing to defend the city would have fatal consequences,” a statement on Facebook said. “In order to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders, it has been decided to withdraw.”
With Luhansk province in control, Russian forces can aim completely southwest into the remaining parts of neighboring Donetsk province, which are held by Ukraine, the other area that makes up the Donbas.
Understanding the war between Russia and Ukraine better
Control of the Donbas, the industrial heart of Ukraine, has become Moscow’s main target since it failed to take the capital Kiev this spring. The Donbas would be a prize that not only provides Russia with mineral resources, but also an overland corridor to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula it forcibly annexed in 2014.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu said that the Russian military, as well as units of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a second pro-Moscow separatist government, had “established complete control of the city of Lysychansk and a number of nearby settlements,” according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
On Saturday, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, released a review that bolstered Russia’s claims. “Ukrainian troops probably withdrew from Lysychansk on purpose, leading to the Russian seizure of the city,” the institute said. Videos showing Russian troops casually walking around suggested there were few, if any, Ukrainian troops left.
After eight years of war between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukraine in the east of the country, Russia now controls half to two-thirds of Donetsk province. Now Russia is expected to use Lysychansk to penetrate Donetsk with attacks on the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Bakhmut in southwestern Lysychansk, all but the next chapter of the war will be just as bloody as the last.
Ukraine’s defenses have already shifted west to Bakhmut, a key supply hub where Russia has increased pressure with artillery and cruise missile fire in recent days. Further west in Sloviansk, the mayor, Vadym Lyakh, reported the heaviest Russian shelling to date on the city on Sunday. Six people were killed and 15 were injured, he wrote on Facebook, and at least 15 buildings were set on fire.
A resident of Lysychansk, Ivan Shybkov, who fled to western Ukraine last month after helping to evacuate civilians, described what happened as “a knife to the heart” — particularly images of some people in Lysychansk harassing the invaders. greeted “with a smile on their face” after long months without basic services such as water, electricity, cell phone service and internet.
“Our emotions are not a switch that can be turned off,” said Mr. Shybkov. “That’s why, of course, it hurts us a lot.”
In the battle for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, Moscow adopted a more successful strategy than in the initial stages of the invasion, when analysts say it spread its forces too thinly as it attempted to capture Kiev and Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkov.
After Russia withdrew from Kiev in early April, it shifted its focus to the Donbas and mustered its firepower — including long-range artillery surpassing that of Ukraine — against specific targets. It stormed cities from the ground and air with artillery and bombs, then sent troops and tanks to make small advances in close combat with Ukrainian forces.
The weirs cost Ukraine dearly.
At one point during the Donbas Offensive, Ukrainian officials said as many as 200 soldiers were dying a day in the fields and villages of eastern Ukraine. And Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk are now “dead cities,” Mr Zelensky said, with about 90 percent of Sievierodonetsk’s buildings in ruins and the population slumped to 7,000 to 8,000 citizens, from 160,000 before the war.
But military analysts say Russia also suffered heavy losses when the underprivileged Ukrainian army held out in the twin cities, forcing Russia to dedicate more troops and weapons to the area and use artillery shells at an extraordinarily fast rate. Ukrainian forces have also diverted Russian resources by making small tactical gains in the past month around the cities of Kharkov to the east and Kherson to the south, although Russia still has significant positions in both regions.
All of this has sapped Russia’s strength elsewhere and may have given Ukraine time to deploy more powerful, longer-range weapons supplied by the West, some analysts say.
Although western countries led by the United States have sent billions of dollars in advanced weapons to help Ukraine, the country’s leaders have been calling for more, and faster. Given the time it takes to train Ukrainian forces in their use, it’s unclear whether more weapons will arrive in time to make a noticeable difference in shielding Donetsk from Russia’s advance.
For now, Ukrainians are largely confined to hope that Russia’s heavy losses in the Donbas will prove unsustainable, as some Western officials and analysts have predicted.
Ukrainian military officials believe the next offensive will come from Popasna, east to Bakhmut, while northern and western Russian lines simply keep Ukrainian forces in place there.
Sunday also brought another reminder of the potential cost to Russia, which suffered one of the worst civilian losses of the war when explosions hit the center of a Russian city just north of Ukraine, killing four, including three Ukrainians, officials said.
The Russian defense ministry blamed Ukraine for the explosions in the city of Belgorod early Sunday. Although Ukraine has occasionally hit fuel and military targets in Russia’s border region, this is the first time Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking a major city center on the Russian side of the border with a deadly attack.
There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military.
In the Ukrainian struggle for national survival, the fall of Lysychansk was another bitter blow.
Dima Boyko, 16, who fled Lysychansk to Kiev, said he last heard from his mother and grandmother two months ago, who had stayed in the city due to the lack of mobile phones. He said he had seen videos of his own neighborhood being taken over by Russian occupiers.
“The flags have already been hung, and also near my house – there is a Soviet monument, a tank,” he said. “From the video and photo in Telegram you can already say that they have completely occupied the city.”
Reporting contributed by Natalia Yermak† Anton Trojanovskic† Austin Ramzy and Alex Traub†
