Russia launched a fresh assault before dawn on Wednesday on the easternmost Ukrainian-held city in the battlefield Donbas region, threatening to close off the last main escape route for civilians trapped in the path of the advance.
After failing to seize Kyiv or Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, Russia is trying to take full control of the Donbas, comprised of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
Russia has poured thousands of troops into the region, attacking from three sides in the hope of encircling Ukrainian forces holding out in the city of Sievierodonetsk on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets river and its twin Lysychansk on the west bank. Their fall would leave the whole of Luhansk region under Russian control, a key Kremlin war aim.
“All the remaining strength of the Russian army is now concentrated on this region,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late night address.
His office said the Russians had launched an offensive on Sievierodonetsk early on Wednesday and the town was under constant fire from mortars.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said six civilians had been killed and at least eight wounded, most near bomb shelters, in Sievierodonetsk. The main road out was still being shelled, he said, but humanitarian aid was still getting in.
Ukraine’s military said fighting for the road was ongoing, and that on Tuesday it had repelled nine Russian attacks in the Donbas. It reported at least 14 civilians killed in strikes by aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery, tanks, mortars and missiles.
In Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held Donbas city that has become a major hub for supplies and evacuations, a missile had blasted a crater in a railway track and damaged nearby buildings, including Lydiia Oleksiivna’s house.
She was clearing dust and ash that covered her kitchen. The windows had been blown out and external walls destroyed. “I don’t know if we can save the house,” she said.
In Kramatorsk, nearer the front line, streets were largely deserted, while in Sloviansk further west, many residents took advantage of what Ukraine said was a break in the Russian assault to leave.
“My house was bombed, I have nothing,” said Vera Safronova, seated in a train carriage among the evacuees.
Western nations have imposed severe sanctions on Russia. The Biden administration said on Tuesday it would not extend a waiver set to expire on Wednesday that enabled Russia to continue to pay US bondholders.
The decision could push Moscow closer to the brink of default, although Moscow is not short of money. Oil and gas revenues stood at $28 billion in April alone, thanks to high energy prices.
British retailer Marks & Spencer on Wednesday became the latest company to announce it would pull out of Russia completely, taking a charge of £31 million .
In a speech by video link to dignitaries at a global forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelensky said the conflict could only be ended with direct talks between him and Putin.
As a “first step towards talks”, Russia should withdraw to lines in place before its February 24 invasion, he said. Prior to the invasion, Russia held Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, while its separatist proxies occupied parts of the Donbas. Ukraine’s closest allies say they fear other western countries might push Kyiv to give up land. The Prime Minister of Estonia said Ukraine should not be forced into compromises.
“It is much more dangerous giving in to Putin than provoking him. All these seemingly small concessions to the aggressor lead to big wars. We have done this mistake already three times: Georgia, Crimea and Donbas.”
Russian raises
President Vladimir Putin ordered 10 per cent boosts on Wednesday in pensions and the minimum wage to cushion Russians from inflation.
With annual inflation near 18 per cent last month, Putin acknowledged that 2022 would be a “difficult” year for the Russian economy. Reuters
