The separatists supported by the Russian army claimed, on Saturday July 2, 2022, to have “totally” surrounded Lyssychansk, in eastern Ukraine, a key city in the Battle of Donbass, at the heart of intense fighting in recent days.
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The city “totally surrounded” according to the separatist army
“Today the Lugansk People’s Militia [l’armée séparatiste] and the Russian armed forces have occupied the last strategic heights, which allows us to affirm that the locality of Lysytchansk is completely surrounded”said a representative of the separatist army of Lugansk, Andrei Marochko, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
Lysychansk is the last major city in the region of the Luhansk region controlled by the Ukrainian army.
It is the twin of that of Severodonetsk, conquered last week by Moscow after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces after a battle lasting several weeks. The two towns are separated by the Donets River.
The capture of Lyssytchansk would allow the Russian army to then advance towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two other large cities in the industrial region of Donbass, which Moscow is seeking to conquer.
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