Ukraine Says Russia Using Scorched Earth Tactics in Donbas

Heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces has continued in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, as the Moscow’s troops pressed on with their advance on Severodonetsk, where local officials accused Russia of using scorched-earth tactics. Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-

held pocket that Russia has been trying to capture since mid-April, when it shifted focus to the south and east after abandoning its offensive to take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, one of the two provinces in Donbas, said on Sunday Russian forces were deploying scorched-earth tactics. They are wiping

Severodonetsk from the face of the Earth, he alleged. Last week, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying out senseless bombardments during its renewed offensive in Donbas, which, he said, had turned it into hell. According to Haidai, Russian forces had occupied several towns and cities in Luhansk after

indiscriminate, 24-hour shelling and were concentrating forces and weaponry there, bringing in troops from the Kharkiv to the northwest, Mariupol to the south, and from inside Russia. Sole working hospital in Severodonetsk has only three doctors and supplies for 10 days, he said. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army said on its Facebook page at least seven civilians were killed and eight others

wounded on Sunday in bombardment of Donetsk, the other province in Donbas. Separately, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces attacked Ukrainian command centres, troops and ammunition depots in Donbas, as well as in the Mykolaiv region in the south with air raids and artillery. The media was unable to verify the claims from the Russian and Ukrainian officials.

Residents run near a burning house following a shelling in Severodonetsk, Donbas region

Fighting elsewhere

Early on the Monday, powerful explosions were heard in Korosten, about 160km (100 miles) west of Kyiv, the town’s deputy mayor said. It was the third straight day of apparent attacks in the Zhytomyr district, according to Ukrainian news agencies. Moreover, in the Russian-held city of Enerhodar, 281km (174 miles) northwest of the

southeastern city of Mariupol, an explosion on Sunday wounded the Moscow-appointed mayor at his residence, The Russian and Ukrainian news agencies also reported. According to Ukraine’s Unian news agency, a bomb planted by local partisans wounded 48 year old Andrei Shevchuk, who lives near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Russian President Vladimir Putin

has called the invasion of Ukraine, which is about to reach the end of its third month, a special military operation to disarm the neighbouring country and rid it of far-right anti-Russian nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for an unprovoked attack that has forced millions to flee abroad and killed or wounded thousands of people, if not more.