Ukrainian President says situation in Donbas remains \u201cextremely difficult\u201d
\n SLOVIANSK
\nRussian forces in a \u201cfrenzied push\u201d have seized half of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk that is key to Moscow\u2019s efforts to quickly complete the capture of the industrial Donbas region, the mayor told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
\n\u201cThe city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block,\u201d Oleksandr Striuk said. He said heavy street fighting continues and artillery bombardments threaten the lives of the estimated 13,000 civilians still sheltering in the ruined city that once was home to more than 100,000.
\nIt\u2019s impossible to track civilian casualties amid the round-the-clock shelling, said the mayor, who believes that more than 1,500 residents have died of various causes since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in late February. Evacuation efforts from Sievierodonetsk have been halted because of shelling.
\n\u201cCivilians are dying from direct strikes, from fragmentation wounds and under the rubble of destroyed buildings, since most of the inhabitants are hiding in basements and shelters,\u201d Striuk said.
\nSievierodonetsk is important to Russian efforts to capture the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine\u2019s defense. Moscow-backed separatists already held territory in the region and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.
\nMilitary analysts described the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time for the Kremlin. The city which is 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Russian border, is in an area that is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in the Luhansk region.
\nIn his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the Donbas remains \u201cextremely difficult\u201d as Russia has put its army\u2019s \u201cmaximum combat power\u201d there.
\nAt least three people were killed and six more wounded overnight in a Russian missile strike on the city of Sloviansk, west of Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning. A school was among several buildings damaged. A crater marked the road between two apartment buildings heavily pockmarked by shrapnel.
\nBlood smeared the floor and stairwell of one building. Resident Olena Voytenko, 59, said she knew one of the people killed, a man whose apartment caught fire in the blast. She believes he burned to death.
\nAnother resident, Mikhaylo Samoluk, said the strike occurred roughly after 1:30 a.m.
\n\u201cI was on my sofa and suddenly my sofa just jumped in the air,\u201d he said.
\nIn neighboring Luhansk, two people were killed and four were wounded by shelling, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said Tuesday on Telegram. Haidai didn\u2019t specify when or where the attack occurred.
\nMeanwhile, the Biden administration intends to provide Ukraine with precision-guided missiles that can hit targets from a distance of 40 miles as part of further effort to boost Ukrainian military in face of Russia\u2019s special operation, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials.
\nThe guided multiple launch rocket systems under consideration can fire twice the distance of the M777 howitzers that the United States has already delivered to Ukraine, the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian President says situation in Donbas remains \u201cextremely difficult\u201d SLOVIANSK Russian forces in a \u201cfrenzied push\u201d have seized half of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk that is key to Moscow\u2019s efforts to quickly complete the capture of the industrial Donbas region, the mayor told The Associated Press on Tuesday. \u201cThe city is essentially being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4641,7851],"class_list":{"0":"post-263703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-russian-forces","9":"tag-sievierodonetsk"},"yoast_head":"\n