Russia ‘pouring fire’ on Ukrainian city as Moscow gains ground in Donbas

Over the past week, the Russian army has captured several villages and towns southeast of Lysychansk, now a staging area for airstrikes and shelling attacks.

Russia was mounting an all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, “pouring fire” on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air, the local governor said Monday, as Western leaders met to discuss ways of bolstering support for Kyiv.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were pummeling Lysychansk after capturing the neighboring city of Sievierodonetsk in recent days.

It’s part of a stepped-up Russian offensive to wrest the broader Donbas region from Ukrainian government control in what Western experts say has become the new main goal of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month.

“They’re pouring fire on the city both from the air and from the ground. After the takeover of Sievierodonetsk, the enemy army has concentrated all its forces on capturing (our) last stronghold in the Luhansk region: Lysychansk,” Haidai told The Associated Press.

The Russians were trying to blockade the city from the south, “destroying everything that their artillery and multiple rocket launchers can reach,” Haidai said.

Over the past week, the Russian army has captured several villages and towns southeast of Lysychansk, now a staging area for airstrikes and shelling attacks.

The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least six civilians were killed and 31 others injured as part of intense Russian shelling against various cities over the past 24 hours – including Kyiv and major cities in the country’s south and east.

It said Russian rocket attacks killed two and injured five overnight in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and its surrounding area. Russian forces also continued to target the key southern port of Odesa, with a missile attack destroying residential buildings and injuring six, including a child, it said.