Ukrainian forces can "surrender or die" in key industrial city, pro-Russian separatists say
CBSN
Ukraine said Monday its forces had been pushed back from the center of the key industrial city of Severodonetsk, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described a fight for "literally every meter." The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, have been targeted for weeks as the last areas still under Ukrainian control in the eastern Luhansk region.
Regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said Monday Russian forces were "gathering more and more equipment" to "encircle" Severodonetsk.
Moscow's troops had "pushed our units from the center and continue to destroy our city," he said.
Russia launched a barrage of missiles at Ukraine Thursday in its first major retaliation for Ukraine's attack earlier in the week on a military facility in the Russian region of Bryansk. That strike saw the Ukrainians use American-made and supplied long-range missiles known as ATACMS, which President Biden had given the Ukrainian forces permission to fire deeper into Russian territory only two days earlier.
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