JAKARTA - Russian troops reportedly pushed back Ukrainian troops from the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian troops were ordered to withdraw after weeks of intense fighting with Russian troops.
Reportedly, this step was taken to avoid more casualties and to rearrange the strategy. However, the Ukrainian move was seen by Russia as a landslide victory.
Ukrainian officials say there is little left to defend in the city, where hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant.
The withdrawal order was issued on Friday, June 24, local time. The order comes months after the Russian invasion began in late February, which has killed thousands, driven millions more and destroyed cities.
The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, said Ukrainian troops in Sievierodonetsk had been ordered to move elsewhere.
"To remain in a position of being blown to pieces for months to stay there is absurd," Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.
Withdrawing from Sievierodonetsk would be the biggest defeat for Ukraine since losing the southern port city of Mariupol in May. The move also appears to be a win for Russia, which is trying to wrest full control of Luhansk.
The area is one of Russia's targets in the war. After Sievierodonetsk, the city of Lysychansk will be the focus of their next attack.
Vitaly Kiselev, an official with the interior ministry of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), told the TASS news agency it would take a week and a half to completely seize Lysychansk. The LPR is the territory of the independent Ukrainian separatist group that only Russia recognizes.
Since Russia withdrew its troops from the capital Kiev, it has focused its attacks on the south and Donbas, an area in the east consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russia has deployed a massive artillery force to the region, seen as Europe's fiercest battlefield since World War Two.
Ukraine on Friday again pressured the West to send arms aid. General Valeriy Zaluzhniy told his US counterpart by telephone his troops needed "equivalent weapons" with Russian troops to neutralize the situation in Luhansk.
To the south of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian troops were also withdrawn from the towns of Hirske and Zolote, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Arestovych said the withdrawal of troops from the cities was a good decision that broke with Soviet and post-Soviet military traditions of never giving up no matter what.
He said the Ukrainian military learned a valuable lesson when it fought pro-Russian forces in 2014 with all-out defense.
"Now, for the first time, we have an example of how our troops are withdrawing regularly," he said in an online video, as reported by Antara.
Russian troops had entered Hirske and completely occupied the surrounding district on Friday, the city's leader, Oleksiy Babchenko, said.
"There is a red (Russian) flag flying over the city building (in Hirske)," a local government spokesman said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba played down the possibility of losing more territory in the Donbas.
"Putin wants to occupy the Donbas on May 9. We (were there) on June 24 and are still fighting. Retreating from some battles does not mean losing the war," Kuleba said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The office of the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said its troops had some success in the Kherson region in the south.
They repelled the Russian troops from their defensive positions near the village of Olhine.
Ukrainian media showed footage of a school being burned and destroyed by Russian rockets in Avdiivka, a town in Donetsk in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Some reports said the school had been used as a first aid center and the attack destroyed medicine and other supplies
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