- by cnn
- 17 Apr 2024
Intense fighting has been reported around the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk as Russian forces appear to be stepping up an offensive to encircle its Ukrainian defenders.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk - known collectively as the Donbas - were being turned into "hell" and warned that what he called the "final stage of the war" would be the bloodiest.
According to multiple sources, Russian troops were pushing west of the Russian-occupied town of Popasna and also attempting to gain ground to the north of Severodonetsk, advancing more than 10km in at least one region with residents fleeing under shellfire.
The focus of the main Russian advance appeared to be the town of Soledar amid speculation that their initial aim was to cut one of the main supply routes to thousands of Ukrainian defenders, who are outnumbered by Russian forces.
Severodonetsk, and the Ukrainian forces there, are particularly vulnerable, with Russian forces threatening from three sides and the operation would put one of the remaining areas of the Luhansk region under Ukrainian control under threat.
According to the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the city of Bakhmut, to the west of Popasna, has been under constant airstrikes with Russian troops approaching the town. Severodonetsk also came under heavy attack. Its mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, said 12 civilians had been killed in the past day and up to 15,000 civilians were sheltering in the city's bomb shelters.
"The Russian army has started very intensive destruction of the town of Severodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled, they are shelling residential quarters, destroying house by house," Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said via his Telegram channel.
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