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Fierce fighting has erupted in the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk as Kiev forces try to repel the Russian attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation as “extremely difficult”.
In a televised speech, he said that for Russia, taking control of Sievierodonetsky was “fundamental” and said that Ukraine was doing everything it could to protect the city from Russian occupation.
Russian troops have entered the city, power and communications have been cut off and “the city has been completely destroyed,” Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“The number of victims is increasing every hour, but we are not able to count the dead and wounded between the street fights,” said the mayor.
Mr Striuk said 12,000 to 13,000 civilians remain in the city, which previously had a population of 100,000. They have taken refuge in basements and bunkers to escape Russian attack.
He estimates that 1,500 civilians have died in the city since the start of the war, from Russian attacks, and from a lack of medicine or treatment.
Sievierodonetsku, the last large populated Ukrainian-controlled center in the eastern Luhansk province, has become the focus of Russian attacks as Moscow tries to control the Donbas region after failing to oust Mr Zelensky or occupy the capital, Kiev, for more than three months. fighting. Sievierodonetsk is about 140 kilometers from the Russian border.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops “use the same tactics over and over again.” They bomb for several hours – for three, four, five hours in a row and then attack. Those who attack die. “Then the bombing and the attacks resume and so on until they penetrate somewhere.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told French television station TF1 on Sunday that “Moscow’s unconditional priority is the liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” adding that Russia sees them as “independent states.”
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