War in Ukraine: extremely difficult situation in Lyssychansk, very powerful shelling makes evacuation of civilians impossible
Steph Deschamps / July 1, 2022
The situation in Lyssychansk, a city in eastern Ukraine under pressure from the Russian army, is extremely difficult with very powerful shelling, making it impossible to evacuate civilians, the regional governor announced Thursday.
According to him, however, Moscow's forces remain on the outskirts ofthe city, where there is no immediate street fighting.
He denied claims by pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside Moscow's forces, who claimed on Thursday to control half of the city, located across the river from Severodonetsk, captured last week by the Russian army.
According to Mr. Gaidai, the bombing of Lyssychansk is very powerful, which makes evacuation no longer possible for the 15,000 or so civilians still in the city, which had 100,000 inhabitants before the war.
It is very dangerous,he continued, adding, however, that Lyssychansk was geographically better placed than Severodonetsk and therefore more defensible.
We can simply say that the Russians are extremely numerous and are coming from all sides. There is an incredible number of vehicles and artillery, he concluded.
Lyssychansk is the last major city left for the Russians to conquer in the Lugansk region, one of the two provinces of the Donbass industrial basin, which Moscow intends to control entirely.