Pounding and Impounding the Donbas

"[The Russians] methodically levelled [the city with Russian tanks targeting one building after another moving on once each was destroyed]."

"So they use these tactics where barrages of ammunition are used to destroy the city and turn it into a burnt-down desert."

"[Russian troops] obliterated any potential defensive positions with constant artillery and burned down forests to prevent trench warfare."

Volodymyr Nazarenko, second-in-command, Svoboda battalion

The Svoboda battalion was part of the June 24 retreat from embattled Sievierodonetsk. They were ordered to retreat in the recognition their lives would be forfeit under the Russian assault should they remain any longer in their long deployment to save the city from falling into Russian hands. They are now stationed in Bakhmut, in relative safety, a city to the southwest.

The city of Lysychansk and surrounding areas is being pounded by Russian forces in an all-out determination to seize the final stronghold of Ukrainian military resistance in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk province. The weeks spent by Ukrainian fighters in efforts to defend the city following the fate of Sievierodonetsk a week ago is coming to an end. "Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons", stated Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidal.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said late Saturday that Russian forces for the first time crossed the river separating Lysychansk from Sievierodonetsk from the north, a "threatening" situation. Control over Lysychansk, he predicted, would be decided by Monday.

The two provinces, Luhansk and Donetsk that make up Donbas are now falling completely to pro-Russian separatist hands. Portions of both eastern provinces have been held by the separatists since 2014 with Moscow recognizing formally all of the Donbas as Russian; Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign republics.

The government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria stated it was prepared to recognize the "independence and sovereignty" of the two areas, and to work toward establishing diplomatic relations with the separatists. Payback to Vladimir Putin for his aid to the Syrian dictator in putting down his own rebellious Syrian Sunni rebels, where Russian warplanes bombed Syrian Sunni area hospitals and schools and civilian enclaves. A practise run for its invasion of Ukraine.

 

Plumes of smoke caused by heavy fighting in Lysychansk. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images