Ukraine war: Putin tightens his grip on the Donbas region

A key Ukrainian stronghold in the Donbas appears on the verge of falling to Russia as the region’s governor began openly talking of surrendering the city today. 

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said Russia is now attacking the city of Severodonetsk from all sides and that – if his is given the order by Kyiv to surrender the city – then he would be willing to do so. 

Haidai said the decision to abandon Severodonetsk – one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in his province – will not be taken lightly but that ‘the war is the bigger priority’, according to a morning briefing from the BBC.

It came as heavy fighting also broke out to the north of Slovyansk, another key city in neighbouring Donetsk province, with Russian bombardment cutting water, power and gas supplies – leaving the last remaining citizens facing the prospect of a siege.

Capturing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – which together make up the Donbas – is now the chief aim of Vladimir Putin’s ‘special military operation’ which entered its 100th day today, after attempts at a rapid victory with an attack on Kyiv failed.

Russia has been tightening its grip on the Donbas in recent days – making slow, costly, but steady progress in subduing the region with withering artillery fire.

Kyiv says Putin’s army is now in control of 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, compared to around 7 per cent when the invasion began on February 24.

President Zelensky admitted yesterday that up to 100 men are dying every day, most of them in Donbas, while another 500 are being wounded – a staggering casualty toll that will be difficult to maintain even as reserves and conscripts are called up. 

Severodonetsk’s Azot factory, one of Europe’s biggest chemical plants, was targeted by Russian soldiers who fired on one of its administrative buildings and a warehouse where methanol was stored.

Ukrainian troops were still holding an industrial zone, Gaiday said, a situation reminiscent of Mariupol, where a huge steelworks was the southeastern port city’s last holdout until Ukrainian troops finally surrendered in late May.

The situation in Lysychansk – Severodonetsk’s twin city, which sits just across a river – also looked increasingly dire.

About 60 percent of infrastructure and housing had been destroyed, while internet, mobile network and gas services had been knocked out, said the city’s mayor Oleksandr Zaika.

‘The shelling is getting stronger every day,’ he said.

In the city of Slovyansk, 50 miles from Severodonetsk, residents said there were constant bombardments by Russian troops.

‘It’s very difficult here,’ said paramedic Ekaterina Perednenko, 24, who only returned to the city five days ago but realises that she will have to leave again.

‘Shooting is everywhere, it’s scary. No water, electricity or gas,’ she said.

And in Mykolaiv in the south, Russian shelling killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian military officials said late Thursday.

Led by the United States, Western nations have pumped arms and military supplies into Ukraine to help it survive the onslaught.

Bridget Brink, the new US ambassador to Kyiv, promised Thursday that the United States would ‘help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression,’ after presenting her credentials to Zelensky.

Earlier this week, the United States announced that it was sending more advanced Himar multiple rocket launch systems to Ukraine.

The mobile units can simultaneously fire multiple precision-guided munitions at targets up to 80 kilometres away.

They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package that also includes air-surveillance radar, ammunition, helicopters and vehicles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of ‘adding fuel to the fire,’ although US officials insist Ukraine has promised not to use them to strike inside Russia.

Beyond sending arms to Ukraine, Western allies have also sought to choke off Russia’s financial lifeline in a bid to get Putin to change course.

Ramping up an already long list of embargoes, the United States blacklisted Putin’s money manager and a Monaco company that provides luxury yachts to Moscow’s elite.

Across the Atlantic, EU nations agreed new sanctions that would halt 90 percent of Russian oil imports to the bloc by the end of the year.

Russia warned that European consumers would be the first to pay the price for the partial oil embargo.

Major crude producers agreed to boost output by about 50 percent more a month in an effort to calm an overheated market and ease pressure on inflation.

But the move disappointed investors, and prices rose following the announcement.

The war risks triggering a global food crisis, as Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers.

It was already translating into higher costs for essentials from cereals to sunflower oil to maize, with the poorest among the hardest hit.

The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, is to visit Russia on Friday for talks with Putin.

The visit is aimed at ‘freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries’, along with easing the Ukraine conflict, Sall’s office said.