Kyiv fears 'Mariupol repeat' as Russian forces escalate Donbas attacks
The advance of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region raised fears that cities in the region would undergo the same horrors inflicted on the people of Mariupol in the weeks before it fell.
The fighting Friday focused on two key cities — Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk — the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have already controlled some territory for eight years.
Authorities say 1,500 people in Sievierodonetsk have already died since the Russian invasion began three months ago. Russia-backed rebels also said they'd taken the railway hub of Lyman.
The governor of Luhansk warned that Ukrainian soldiers may have to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to avoid being surrounded. But the regional governor Sergiy Haidai predicted an ultimate Ukrainian victory.
"The Russians will not be able to capture Luhansk region in the coming days, as analysts predict,'' Haidai wrote on Telegram on Friday. "We will have enough forces and means to defend ourselves.''
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also struck a defiant tone in his nightly video address on Friday. "If the occupiers think that Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong," he said. "Donbas will be Ukrainian.''
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk described conditions in the city as reminiscent of the battle for Mariupol, saying that "the city is being systematically destroyed — 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged."
Now in ruins, the port city was constantly barraged by Russian forces in a nearly three-month siege that ended last week when Russia claimed its capture. More than 20,000 of its civilians are feared dead.
Before the war,
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