Severodonetsk, Ukraine’s bombed-out, sees intense street fighting

• Ukrainian Security Council Secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, stated that the situation in Severodonetsk was “extremely complicated” Russian forces are concentrating all of their resources in the area.
• Ukrainian soldiers lacked “catastrophic” artillery to fire back at Russia’s guns.

Officials claimed Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in Severodonetsk amid fierce street warfare and day and night shelling as Russia pushed to take the bombed-out city, which is critical to Russia’s goal of controlling eastern Ukraine.

On the other bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, Severodonetsk and its twin city, Lysychansk, are the final Ukrainian-controlled areas of Luhansk province, which Russia is keen to take as one of its primary war targets.

Read more: 10,000 civilians trapped in Severodonetsk: Mayor

“They don’t spare their people, they’re just sending men like cannon fodder … they are shelling our military day and night,” Danilov stated to an international news agency in an interview.

Ukraine stated that the only way to change the tide in the small industrial city in its favour is to add more artillery to counter Russia’s overwhelming firepower.

In a rare update from Severodonetsk, the commander of Ukraine’s Svoboda National Guard Battalion, said Ukrainians were dragging Russians into street fighting to neutralise their artillery superiority.

Read more: Ukraine suffers setbacks in strategic city Severodonetsk

However, he claimed that his soldiers lacked “catastrophic” counter-battery artillery to fire back at Russia’s guns, and that gaining such weapons would change the battlefield.