Russian troops have fired artillery shells and rockets at Sloviansk and surrounding towns in the past day, keeping the pressure on a heavily fortified stronghold still held by Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region. A targeted rocket strike hit a makeshift military base at a factory in the village of Konstantinovka on Saturday afternoon, sending naked Ukrainian soldiers running from the area after the explosion. A follow-up cluster munition strike minutes later missed its mark, instead landing in a nearby residential neighborhood, setting fire to buildings, shredding tree bark and blowing out windows. Several civilians, some seriously injured, were rushed to the hospital. In the town of Druzhkivka, pre-dawn rockets hit the parking lot of a shopping center and a field next to some apartment buildings. Another missile landed outside what appeared to be a military target, leaving a huge crater at the foot of a Soviet-era statue outside a machine factory. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Ukrainian and foreign observers said this week that Russia appeared to be taking an “operational pause” from its offensive in the Donbass, an area made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said on Wednesday that Russia had not claimed or assessed any territorial gains in Ukraine for “the first time in 133 days of war”, but said such a pause was not means “complete cessation of active hostilities”.
A house destroyed this week by Russian bombing in Sloviansk.
Photo: miguel medina/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The aftermath of a strike on Shiversk, a town that would likely be in the path of a Russian push towards Sloviansk.
Photo: miguel medina/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
When Russia resumes its offensive, it will likely focus on Sloviansk and neighboring Kramatorsk, Sloviansk Mayor Vadim Liak said on Friday. The strikes, which have killed 18 civilians in Sloviansk over the past two weeks, appear to be aimed at scaring residents into fleeing and disrupting Ukraine’s operations behind the front lines, he said. Even in the midst of an operational pause, Russian forces say they have been pushing towards Sloviansk. On Saturday, a separatist official claimed that Moscow forces had captured the village of Grigoryevka outside the city of Siversk, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Russia’s offensive will pass through Shiversk, about 25 miles from Sloviansk, according to the Institute for the Study of War. But Mr Lyakh said the recent fighting has mostly been a stalemate. While Russian forces claim advances, they often lose the same ground in small battles the next day. “Sometimes the enemy moves 5 kilometers forward and then gets knocked back,” he said. “So there is a gray area. I don’t think the front is moving.” Russia’s seizure of the key Luhansk region, which has been widely publicized by state media, marks a new stage in the country’s war in Ukraine. WSJ’s Brett Forrest explains how tactics have evolved on both sides and what might be next. Photo: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters The capture of Sloviansk would be a strategic victory for Russian forces because the city crosses several regional roads, making it a local transportation hub. It is also symbolically important because it played a role in the Russian-backed uprising in 2014, when gunmen seized the local police station and turned it into headquarters for a regional insurgency. Ukrainian forces recaptured the city three months later, and for the past eight years Sloviansk has been the recipient of federal largesse that helped build its parks, schools and infrastructure, said Tetyana Khimion, who ran a local dance studio and now runs humanitarian aid in the city as a volunteer. The Russian invasion sparked an exodus from the city, where the population has plummeted to around 20,000 today from 110,000 in February. Ms Khimion said those left behind “say they have no money to leave or nowhere to go”. Mr. Lyakh, the mayor, said the city has been without water for two months and large parts of Slovyansk are without electricity because workers have either left the city or are unable to repair equipment without coming under fire from Russian troops. . The streets of Sloviansk are empty, with almost all the apartment buildings empty because the elevators inside are no longer working, Mr. Liak said. Those who remain, he said, have taken refuge in single-family homes or empty apartments on the lower floors.
Bombing continues in the Donetsk region, which Russia intends to capture as part of its aim to control the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Photo: GLEB GARANICH / REUTERS
Mr. Lyakh said police arrested a handful of pro-Russian provocateurs inside the city, who were apparently spotting targets or making reports about Ukrainian military units digging trenches and fortifications in the area. Some Russian sympathizers probably remain among the population, but “they are fewer now because they know that Russia started this war,” he said. In recent days, Kiev forces have successfully used Himars multiple-launch missile systems delivered by the US and allies to strike weapons depots and fuel storage facilities in Russian-controlled areas of the Donbass, seeking to undermine Moscow’s offensive in Donetsk region. Separatist officials reported Ukraine’s latest strike with a Himars system on Saturday afternoon. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces destroyed Ukrainian ammunition depots in Shiversk and the city of Bakhmut, where the Ukrainian military says Russia will also launch its offensive in the Donetsk region. Russian forces also targeted Ukrainian positions in the neighboring town of Soledar, the ministry said. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that his forces “haven’t even started” fighting in Ukraine. On Friday, the Kremlin said only a small part of Russia’s military force was involved in the Ukraine operation. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said on Saturday that the attack had already achieved an important goal for Moscow. “Russia really started to be reckoned with. As with the Soviet Union. And in some ways more seriously,” the former president and prime minister wrote on his Telegram channel. Write to Alan Cullison at [email protected] and Evan Gershkovich at [email protected] Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
