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Ukraine Denies Separatists' Claim Of An 'Encircled' Lysychansk, Says Fighting Rages On

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service July 02, 2022

Russian-backed separatists claim they have "completely" surrounded Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials rejected the assertion and say its defenders are holding on in the key town on the Siverskiy Donets River.

"Fighting rages around Lysychansk. [However,] the city has not been encircled and is still under control of the Ukrainian Army," Ruslan Muzytchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard, told Ukrainian television on July 2.

Hours earlier, Andrei Marotchko, a spokesman for the Kremlin-backed separatist forces, was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency as saying that "popular militia" and Russian forces had occupied strategic heights near the town and that "Lysychansk is completely encircled."

The claims could not immediately be confirmed, but the fight for Lysychansk will likely determine the outcome of the battle for Ukraine's Donbas region, which has become the focus of Russia's military onslaught after Kremlin forces failed to take Kyiv and other major cities in the north and west of the country.

Russian troops have blasted Lysychansk with rocket and missile attacks in the past several days. The latest fighting comes a week after the fall of its sister city, Syevyerodonetsk, just across the Siverskiy Donets River. That city had been reduced to rubble by Russian forces prior to the takeover.

The head of the Ukrainian military administration of Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said on Telegram late on July 2 that that shelling had prevented the residents of Lysychansk from putting out fires.

"Private houses in attacked villages are burning down one by one," he said.

Over recent weeks, Russia forces have intensified their deadly onslaught throughout eastern Ukraine, including in civilian areas, and have attacked cities elsewhere as well.

On July 2, there were reports of "powerful explosions" in the southern city of Mykolayiv.

"There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!" Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych posted on Telegram.

The cause of the explosions could not be immediately determined, but air-raid sirens were heard across the southern Mykolayiv region, which borders the Odesa region.

Russia later claimed its military had struck Ukrainian Army command posts in the area.

A day earlier, 21 civilians were killed in Russian missile strikes in Serhiyivka near the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa.

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles had struck a multistory apartment building and a recreational center in Serhiyivka, killing 21 people, including at least two children, and injuring 38 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 2 accused Russia of state "terror" following the attack.

"I emphasize: This is an act of deliberate, purposeful Russian terror -- and not some kind of mistake or an accidental missile strike," Zelenskiy said.

"Three missiles hit a regular nine-story apartment building, in which nobody was hiding any weapons, any military equipment," he added. "Regular people, civilians, lived there."

Russia denies that it has targeted civilian or residential areas.

Amid the setbacks, Ukraine's Armed Forces General Staff reported gains around the strategic city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, claiming that 120 Russian troops had been killed over the past 24 hours.

It said that brought the total of Russian forces killed to an estimated 35,870, although Western experts put the death toll at around 20,000.

The Russian Ministry of Defense does not provide updated casualty figures. The last numbers it reported, on March 25, put the Russian death toll at 1,351 servicemen.

Ukraine has not released official casualty figures, buy Zelenskiy has said the country is losing more than 100 soldiers a day in the battle for the Donbas.

Russia's military focus on Ukraine's east has brought Moscow closer to reaching its revised objective of capturing the Donbas, which is composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Parts of both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions have been under the control of pro-Russia separatists since 2014, when Russia also invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, a move not recognized by the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said at least eight city and village heads are being held by Russian troops after the capture of their towns as of July 2, including Mayor Ihor Kolykhayev of Kherson.

Kolykhayev was detained after he refused to work with occupying Russian forces. His adviser said that officers of Russia's National Guard searched the mayor's office and detained him on June 28.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mykolayiv- explosions-russia-war-odesa/31925762.html

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.