MOCOW (AFP/Al Jazeera) – The battle for the main eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk raged on Sunday with Russian forces conducting operations that led to street fighting with Ukraine defenders.
It was unclear if Severodonetsk – the focus of weeks of fierce fighting – had been encircled with some reports suggesting government troops repelled Russian soldiers during close-quarter combat. Regional officials reported Russian forces were “storming” the strategic eastern city.
“With the use of artillery, Russian forces carried out assault operations in the area of the city of Severodonetsk,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday in a statement. “The fighting continues.”
Inside Severodentsk, where an estimated 15,000 civilians remain, a local official said “constant shelling” made it increasingly difficult to get in or out.
“Evacuation is very unsafe, it’s isolated cases when we manage to get people out. Now the priority is for the wounded and people who need serious medical assistance,” said Oleksandr Striuk, head of the city’s military and civil administration.
The water supply was also increasingly tenuous as a lack of electricity meant the pumps at city wells no longer functioned, he said, adding residents had gone more than two weeks without mobile phone connections.
The sole road maintaining contact with the outside world, meanwhile, was expected to be the focus of continued Russian attacks, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said late Saturday.
“Next week will be very hard as Russia puts all its resources into seizing Severodonetsk,” he said.
Ukrainian troops may have to retreat from the city to avoid capture, said Haidai.
In his daily address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation is “very difficult, especially in those areas in the Donbas and Kharkiv regions, where the Russian army is trying to squeeze at least some result for itself”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West that ramping up weapons supplies to Ukraine is “dangerous” and could further destabilize the situation in the pro-Western country.
His remarks come on the heels of U.S. media reports that Washington is preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to further help Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not confirm the plans to deliver the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, a highly mobile system capable of firing up to 300 kilometers that Kyiv has said it badly needs.