Russia throws all its reserves into battle to capture Sieverodonetsk and the city of Bakhmut. This is what the governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Hajday said about the military situation in Donbass. According to the General Staff, the fighting for Sievjerodonetsk continues unabated.
Accordingly, Russian troops shelled the administrative center of the Luhansk region with heavy artillery. However, an attempted storming of the Ukrainian positions in the city’s industrial area failed. Russian storming attempts were also unsuccessful in Syrotyne, a village west of Metjolkine.
According to the Moscow military, almost two million people have been brought to Russia from the contested areas of Ukraine. A Defense Ministry official gave a total of 1.936 million people from Ukraine, including 307,000 children. On Saturday alone, 29,730 people were evacuated to Russia, including 3,500 children, said Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev.
According to Moscow, the people from the combat zones and from the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk are being taken to safety in Russia. Ukraine has accused Russia of not allowing people to flee to areas controlled by the Kiev government. From Ukraine’s point of view, Russia is deporting its citizens. Many Ukrainian refugees are trying to leave Russia and travel to third countries.
The large village of Metyolkine is located south-east of Sieverodonetsk. Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov had previously said that Russian forces had completely taken over the town. The Russian armed forces deploy several units from Chechnya with thousands of armed men in Ukraine. In Metyolkine, officers and soldiers of the Ukrainian Ajdar battalion were voluntarily taken prisoner, the Russian agency TASS reported, citing the pro-Russian separatists of the Luhansk People’s Republic. This information could not be independently verified.
Russian troops destroyed oil tanks near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a rocket attack on Saturday. The regional administration reported three rockets that hit the depot in the Novomoskovsk district. “There is a strong fire,” said the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko. Eleven people were injured. Russian missiles hit a factory that processes gas near the city of Izyum. There was a big fire there too.
Hajdaj said 568 civilians, including 38 children, took shelter at the Azot plant. “There is constant contact with them. They have been offered evacuation several times, but they don’t want to.” The place cannot be compared to the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol. “This is not an underground city. These are individual emergency shelters that are separate and not connected to each other.” Ukrainian defenders and civilians had held out for weeks in a bunker system under the Azovstal steelworks, long after Mariupol had been conquered by Russian troops.
Also Read: The Ukraine Update on June 18th
