Russian troops occupy the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Sunday. Among them are fighters from Chechnya. Ruler Ramzan Kadyrov posted videos on his Telegram channel that allegedly show Chechen special forces in the city (see above). It shows soldiers waving flags, shouting “Allahu akbar” and raising a Soviet-style victory banner. They announced a “clean up operation” for the city.
In several video clips on Saturday, fighters stated that the city had been taken “without any loss of personnel” and that it would now be “cleansed” of the remaining Ukrainian armed forces. On Sunday evening, Ukraine confirmed that Lysychansk had been taken by Russian forces after weeks of fighting and that Ukrainian defenders were withdrawing from the city. With the capture of Lysychansk and the concomitant control of the entire Luhansk region, the Kremlin achieved one of its main war goals.
‘Don’t know what will happen to the men’
According to the military governor of the region, Serhiy Hajday, the civilians in the large city of Luhansk are now practically detained. Of the once more than 100,000 inhabitants, only a few thousand remain, Hajdaj said Monday. Theoretically, they could leave the occupied territories, “but only through Russia and other countries. And I don’t know what’s going to happen to the men in the area. They may be forced to fight at the front,” the governor said.
Hundreds of thousands of people from the region are displaced. Hajdaj said further fighting broke out in western Lysychansk on Monday. Nearly everything in the metropolis is now destroyed: 90 percent of the infrastructure has been damaged and 60 percent of the residential buildings have been destroyed. The information is hardly independently verifiable.
According to the governor’s estimate, Russian forces will now focus on the neighboring Donetsk region. He expects that the cities of Slovyansk and Bakhmut will be attacked in particular, said Governor Serhiy Hajdaj of Reuters news agency. Russia is trying to gain full control over the Donbass. This region on the border with Russia consists of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Zelensky: “Will come back”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced his intention to recapture lost territory using Western weapons. “If the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest advantage from fire – Lysychansk in particular – it means only one thing: that thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons, we will come back Ukraine is not giving anything away.”
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
