Russian army-backed separatists said on Saturday they had “completely” surrounded Lyssychansk in eastern Ukraine, a key city at the heart of heavy fighting in recent days.
“Today, the Lugansk People’s Militia and the Russian armed forces occupied the last strategic heights, which allows us to state that the town of Lysytchansk is completely surrounded,” said a representative of the Lugansk separatist army. , Andrei Marochko, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
It is the twin of Severodonetsk, conquered last week by Moscow after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces after a battle that lasted several weeks. The two cities are separated by the Donets River.
Taking Lyssytchansk would allow the Russian army to move on to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two other big cities in the Donbass industrial region, which Moscow seeks to conquer.
