Sievierodonetsk falls to Russia after one of war’s bloodiest fights
- Capture of Sievierodonetsk big gain for Russia
- Ukraine says it carries out ‘tactical withdrawal’
- Dozens of missiles hit Ukrainian military bases
KYIV/POKROVSK, Ukraine, June 25 (Reuters) – Russian forces fully occupied the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk on Saturday, both sides said, confirming Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month following weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting.
Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lysychansk.
The fall of Sievierodonetsk – once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland – was Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow…
