22 minutes ago
The fighting caused a fire at an oil refinery near Lysichansk
The Ukrainian army confirmed the fall of the eastern city of Lyschansk to Russian forces.
“After heavy fighting in Lysekhansk, the Ukrainian Defense Forces were forced to withdraw from their occupied positions and lines,” the Army General Staff said.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his forces had captured Lyschansk and had fully taken control of the Luhansk region.
The Ukrainian General Staff claimed that “in order to save the lives of the Ukrainian defenders, a decision was taken to withdraw.”
She said that the Russians have multiple advantages in artillery, aircraft, manpower and other forces.
President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that Ukrainian forces would return to Lyschansk thanks to their tactics and “thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons.”
Earlier, the President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a video clip that appears to show Chechen fighters in the center of Lyschansk.
And Jonathan Pyle, the BBC’s defense correspondent, says he would view Ukraine’s loss of Lysekhansk as another setback in the east.
“The fall of Lysichansk is by no means the end of the fighting in the Donbass, as Ukraine still controls large urban areas in neighboring Donetsk. Its forces were preparing new defensive lines between Bakhmut and Sloviansk although they are also now under intense Russian bombardment. Both sides are suffering Huge loss of life.”
“The question now is whether Ukraine can stop the progress, and whether Russia can maintain the momentum,” he explains.
To the west, the Ukrainian-controlled city of Sloviansk was bombed, killing at least six people.
It is in the Donetsk region, which together with Luhansk forms the Donbass industrial region.
Shortly before the start of the war, President Vladimir Putin recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent from Ukraine.
Russian-backed forces launched an insurgency there in 2014.
A little over a week ago, Russian forces took control of Severodonetsk.
Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the two largest cities in the Donetsk region and are still in Ukrainian hands.
Mayor Vadim Lyak said Russian bombing of Sloviansk on Sunday caused 15 fires, and video footage showed huge plumes of smoke rising above the city. He said it was the worst bombing there in recent times.
A video clip on Twitter showed large explosions from a distance in Sloviansk, according to the caption. Posted by Iulia Mendel, former spokeswoman for Zelensky.
The BBC was unable to verify the latest developments in Sloviansk.
Russia accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians with a missile strike on the Russian city of Belgorod, 40 km from Ukraine’s northern border.
The local governor said four people were killed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said three Ukrainian “Tochka-U” missiles were shot down, but the debris fell on an apartment building.
In another development, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey said that local customs officials had detained a Russian cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain. Earlier, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General asked Turkey to detain Zeybek Zuli, anchored off a port east of Istanbul.