KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia claimed control Sunday over the last Ukrainian stronghold in an eastern province that is key to achieving a major goal of\u00a0Moscow\u2019s grinding war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The General Staff of Ukraine\u2019s military reported that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in Luhansk province, but the president said the fight for the city was still raging on its outskirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If confirmed, Russia\u2019s complete seizure of Luhansk would provide its troops with a stronger base from which to press their advance in the Donbas, a region of mines and factories that President Vladimir Putin is bent on capturing\u00a0in a campaign that could determine the course of the entire war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that Russia\u2019s troops, with a local separatist militia, \u201chave established full control over the city of Lysychansk\u201d and now hold all of Luhansk, according to a ministry statement published Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As is typical with such descriptions, the Russian statement characterized the victories as \u201cthe liberation of the Luhansk People\u2019s Republic.\u201d Separatists in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk, which make up the Donbas and are home to significant Russian-speaking populations,\u00a0declared independence from Kyiv in 2014\u00a0and their forces have battled Ukrainian troops there ever since. Russia formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics days before its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian and Russian forces fought fiercely for Lysychansk in recent days after the neighboring city fell last week. On Sunday evening, the General Staff of Ukraine\u2019s military confirmed on social media that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk \u201cto preserve the lives of Ukrainian defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, however, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Kyiv\u2019s forces were still battling Russian soldiers on the city\u2019s outskirts \u201cin a very difficult and dangerous situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe cannot give you the final judgment. Lysychansk is still being fought for,\u201d Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv given alongside Australia\u2019s visiting prime minister. He noted that territory can move quickly from one side to the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces maintain an advantage in the area, he acknowledged, calling it a Ukrainian military \u201cweak spot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The capture of Lysychansk would give the Russians more territory from which to intensify attacks on Donetsk. In recent weeks, Russian forces were thought to hold about half of Donetsk, but it\u2019s not clear where things stand now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Russia prevails in the Donbas, Ukraine would lose not only land but perhaps the bulk of its most capable military forces, opening the way for Moscow to grab more territory and strengthen its ability to dictate terms to Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since failing to take Kyiv\u00a0and other areas in northern and central Ukraine early in the war, Russia has focused on the Donbas, unleashing fierce shelling and engaging in house-to-house combat that devastated Lysychansk, neighboring Sievierodonetsk and nearby villages. Few details emerged from either city during the battles, which decimated their populations as people were killed or fled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already Russian forces appeared to be pushing their advance in Donetsk, concentrating rocket\u00a0attacks on the sizable Ukrainian-held city of Slovyansk, where at least six people were killed, regional government spokeswoman Tatyana Ignatchenko told Ukrainian TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kramatorsk, another major city in the Donetsk region, also came under fire, the regional administration said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Far from the fighting in the east, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday visited a town near the capital that was severely damaged early in the war. Albanese called the destruction in Irpin \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are homes and these are livelihoods and indeed lives that have been lost here in this town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the exiled mayor of the Russia-occupied city of Melitopol said Sunday that Ukrainian rockets destroyed one of four Russian military bases in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attacks were also reported inside Russia, in a revival of sporadic apparent Ukrainian strikes across the border. The governor of the Belgorod region in Western Russia said fragments of an intercepted Ukrainian missile killed four people Sunday. In the Russian city of Kursk, two Ukrainian drones were shot down, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kursk regional governor Roman Starovoit said the town of Tetkino, on the Ukraine border, came under mortar fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia claimed control Sunday over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}