Bodies recovered from Azovstal • Fierce fighting for key eastern industrial city • Eastern front under constant shelling • Mass evacuation efforts
Ukrainian troops were engaged in fierce street fighting with Russian soldiers in the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, in what is a pivotal battle in the Kremlin’s attempt to control the eastern Donbas region.
Sievierodonetsk has become the main target of the Russian offensive in the Donbas, comprising Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, as the invasion grinds on in a war of attrition that has seen cities laid waste by artillery barrages.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said earlier on Monday the situation had worsened after Ukrainian defenders had pushed back the Russians over the weekend as they seemed close to victory.
Azovstal’s fallen
Russia has begun the process of returning the bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, according to the Associated Press. The bodies have been taken to Kyiv, where they are undergoing DNA testing to identify the remains. As of Monday morning, the exact number of bodies remaining at the plant is unknown.
The front lines — Sievierodonetsk
Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Monday that Russian forces were also advancing towards Sloviansk, which lies about 85 km (53 miles) to the west of Sievierodonetsk.
“The front line is under constant shelling,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.
“The enemy is also shelling near Lyman with the aim of wrecking our defensive positions and advancing on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. There is also shelling of Svyatohirsk with the same aim.”
Kyrylenko said efforts were underway to evacuate people from several towns, some under day and night attack, including Sloviansk which has about 24,000 residents still there.
“People are now understanding, though it is late, that it is time to leave,”
Fighting on the ground
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for more weapons to arrive faster, saying things could become very difficult for Ukraine if Russian forces broke through front lines in Donbas, the eastern region where Sievierodonetsk is the main city not in Russian hands.
They outnumber us, they are more powerful,” Zelensky told reporters at a briefing on Monday. But Ukraine’s forces have “every chance” of fighting back, he added.
In its nightly update, the Ukrainian military said two civilians were killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Monday and that Russian forces had fired at more than 20 communities.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Monday that Russian forces were also advancing towards Sloviansk, which lies about 85 km (53 miles) to the west of Sievierodonetsk, the largest remaining Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports. Russia denies targeting civilians in the conflict.
Russia says it is on a mission to “liberate” the Donbas – partly held by separatist proxies of Moscow since 2014 – after Ukrainian forces pushed its troops back from the capital Kyiv and Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv in the war’s early stages.
UK Ministry of Defence update
Russia’s progress made through May on the southern Popasna axis has stalled over the last week, Britain’s defense ministry said on Tuesday.
Reports of heavy shelling near Izium suggest Russia is preparing to make a renewed effort on the northern axis, it also said in a tweet.