Ukrainian troops holding out within the ruins of Sievierodonetsk got here beneath renewed heavy assault on Wednesday from Russian forces who see the seize of the economic metropolis as key to regulate of the encompassing Luhansk area.
In southern Ukraine, one other main battleground within the conflict, authorities warned that Russian assaults on agricultural websites together with warehouses had been compounding a world meals disaster that has stirred issues of famine in some growing international locations.
Russian forces have been targeted for weeks now on seizing Sievierodonetsk, which was dwelling to some 106,000 individuals earlier than Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
However the Luhansk area's governor mentioned Ukrainian forces wouldn't give up the town.
"Combating remains to be raging and nobody goes to surrender the town, even when our army has to step again to stronger positions. This won't imply somebody is giving up the town - nobody will surrender something. However (they) could also be pressured to drag again," Serhiy Gaidai instructed Ukrainian tv.
Russian forces will additional enhance their shelling and bombardment of each Sievierodonetsk and its smaller twin metropolis of Lysychansk on the west financial institution of the Siverskyi Donets River, he mentioned.
Luhansk and the adjoining province of Donetsk type the Donbas, claimed by Moscow for Russian-speaking separatists who've held jap elements of the area since 2014.
"The completely heroic defence of Donbas is ongoing," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned in a video assertion on Tuesday.
"It's completely felt that the occupiers did not consider the resistance of our army can be so robust and now they're making an attempt to usher in new sources in the direction of the Donbas," he mentioned.
Reuters couldn't independently confirm the scenario on the bottom.
Moscow says it's engaged in a "particular army operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour.
Ukraine and its allies name this a baseless pretext for a conflict that has killed hundreds, flattened cities and compelled thousands and thousands of individuals to flee.
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