Ukrainian troops defending the city of Severodonetsk are facing constant shelling by Russian forces but “no one will give up” the fight, the governor of the eastern Luhansk region said Wednesday. “Mortars, artillery, tanks, air strikes, everything is flying there right now,” governor Serhii Haidai said in remarks broadcast on television. Severodonetsk is one of the last large cities still under partial Ukrainian control in the Donbas, which consists of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, transmits MIA.
The industrial city also offers strategic advantages, including its location on the Donets river. Even before the invasion began on Feb. 24, Moscow claimed swathes of the Donbas on behalf of Kremlin-backed separatist forces.
“No one will give up anything – even if our soldiers are forced to retreat to better fortified positions,” Haidai said.
He noted that given the heavy attacks, a key railway line was no longer being used by Ukraine and that supplies for the twin cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk were being rerouted.
“It is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours,” the British Ministry of Defense said of Severodonetsk in its daily report.
Russia continues to attempt assaults on the city from three different directions, although Ukrainian defenses are still holding, according to London’s analysis.
There were also intensified air strikes towards Bachmut in Donetsk and around Ukrainian fighters near Zolote in Luhansk, according to the Ukrainian general staff, who said Russian Ka-52 combat helicopters also involved.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Ukrainian armed forces are suffering heavy losses in the Donbas fighting.
Kyiv lost more than 300 fighters within three days in battles around the Donetsk town of Svyatohirsk alone, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Svyatohirsk is about 80 kilometers to the west of Severodonetsk. Moscow also reported pounding a tank factory in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and attacks on Ukrainian command posts. The claims by the sides could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Russia is forcibly introducing the rouble as a legal tender in the occupied southern Kherson region, the British Defense ministry said. According to the report, Moscow is also employing Russian teachers to introduce the Russian curriculum and language to schools.
“Russia will highly likely claim its occupation of Kherson as evidence of delivering improved governance and living standards to the Ukrainian people,” the ministry said. Elsewhere on Wednesday, Norway said it had delivered 22 howitzers to Ukraine and Luxembourg said it had frozen nearly €4.3 billion ($4.5 billion) in Russian assets to date as a result of EU sanctions.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about further support. In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, they also discussed how grain exports from Ukraine could be made possible by sea, according to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin.
The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports has led to a halt in these exports, causing food prices to rise and exacerbating a hunger crisis in many poor countries, especially in Africa.
In Strasbourg, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament told EU lawmakers that candidate status for EU membership could encourage more reforms in his country.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk described potential candidate status for entry as as an “incentive” for further reforms. Should Ukraine receive “this political message, we are ready to continue to work, to move forward quickly and to implement reforms, as we have done in the past,” Stefanchuk said in his speech.
Stefanchuk said it was important for Ukraine to receive the candidate status from the European Union at an upcoming EU leaders summit in June.
If Ukraine does not get candidate status, it would mark a win for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Stefanchuk.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently said Ukraine is to get a first answer in June about its application to join the bloc, a years-long and complicated process.
