Russia Destroys Bridges And Cuts Escape Routes In Sievierodonetsk, President Zelensky: Fierce Battle

Illustration of the impact of the Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/kh.dsns.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Russian troops blew up a bridge connecting the embattled Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk to another city across the river, cutting off possible evacuation routes for civilians, local officials said on Sunday.

Sievierodonetsk has become the center of the battle for control of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Parts of the city have been destroyed in some of the bloodiest fighting since the Kremlin launched its invasion on February 24.

"The main tactical objectives of the invaders have not changed: they are pressing in Sievierodonetsk, fierce fighting is taking place there," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video address, adding that the Russian military was trying to deploy reservists. to the Donbas, reported Reuters June 13.

Meanwhile, Lugansk province governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian and Russian troops were still fighting in the streets there on Sunday.

Russian troops have taken control of most of the city, but Ukrainian forces have retained control of the industrial area and the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have taken refuge.

However, Russia has destroyed a bridge over the Donets Siverskyi River linking Sievierodonetsk with its sister city Lysychansk, Gaidai said.

According to him, only one of the three bridges is left standing.

"If after the new shelling, the bridge collapses, the city will be completely cut off. There will be no way to leave Sievierodonetsk by vehicle," Gaidai said, noting the absence of a ceasefire agreement and no agreed evacuation corridor.

The head of the Sievierodonetsk government said a little more than a third of the city remained under the control of Ukrainian forces, with about two-thirds in Russian hands.

"Our (troops) hold the defensive line firmly," Oleksandr Stryuk told national TV.

In Lysychansk, a Russian shooting killed a six-year-old child, Gaidai said. Reuters could not independently confirm these accounts.

Having been forced to scale back its initial campaign goals following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has turned its attention to expanding control in the Donbas, where pro-Russian separatists have held territory since 2014.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk, in the last pocket of Ukrainian land held in the strategic Lugansk region, would bring Russia one step closer to one of the goals declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a special military operation.