Following the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in seizing an eastern Ukraine province crucial to his wartime aims, a city in the path of Moscow’s offensive came under sustained bombardment, its mayor stated on Tuesday.
Mayor Vadim Lyakh took it to the Facebook, stating that, “massive shelling” pummeled Sloviansk, which had a population of over 107,000, before Russia calls for the full-scale military operation against Ukraine on February 24. The mayor, who advised residents hours earlier to evacuate, urged them to take cover in shelters.
The barrage targeting Sloviansk has highlighted fears that Russian forces were placed to advance farther into Ukraine’s Donbas region. The country’s most experienced troops are concentrated in this mostly Russian-speaking industrial area.
Sloviansk has taken rocket & artillery fire during Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the bombardment picked up in the last days after Moscow took the last major city in neighbouring Luhansk province, Lyakh said.
He alerted on Tuesday morning, adding that shelling damaged 40 houses on Monday, “It’s vital to evacuate as many people as possible.”
The Ukrainian military has witdrawn its troops Sunday from the city of Lysychansk to keep them from being surrounded. Russia’s defence minister and Putin added the city’s subsequent capture put Moscow in control of the whole Luhansk, one of two(2) provinces that make up the Donbas.
As per the office of Ukraine’s president, “The Ukrainian military was still defending a small part of Luhansk & trying to buy time to establish fortified positions in nearby areas.