Ukrainian military may have to retreat from Severodonetsk

• Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday says Ukrainian forces may have to retreat from Severodonetsk.
• The strategically significant city is being shelled by Russian troops “24 hours a day”.
• Its seizure would allow Russian troops to advance deeper into the eastern Donbas region.

The regional governor stated on Wednesday that Ukrainian soldiers may have to withdraw from the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which is being shelled by Russian troops “24 hours a day.”

“It is possible that we will have to retreat” to better defended locations, said Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday in an interview with Ukrainian TV channel.

“No one is going to surrender Severodonetsk, even if our forces have to fall back to better fortified positions,” Gaiday said.

Read more: Hundreds of citizens are taking refuge in a factory in Severodonetsk

Its seizure would allow Russian troops to advance deeper into the eastern Donbas region and into Kramatorsk, Ukraine’s de facto administrative centre there.

As per Sergiy Gaiday, severe fighting was still going on in Severodonetsk, an industrial city with a population of roughly 100,000 people before the war.

Read more: Zelenskiy swears to reclaim land in the east of Ukraine

At least two people were murdered and two more were injured in the greater Lugansk region, according to the Ukrainian presidency in a briefing Wednesday morning.