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Ukraine Withdraws From Lysychansk While Zelenskiy Vows To Regain Lost Territory [1]
["Rfe Rl'S Ukrainian Service"]
Date: 2022-07
Ukraine's forces have withdrawn from the bombed-out city of Lysychansk, prompting Russia to claim full control of the eastern Luhansk region. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to regain the lost territory.
"If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire power, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing -- that we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons,” he said in his nightly video address on July 3.
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After failing to take the capital, Kyiv, Russia revised its military focus on Ukraine's east with the goal of capturing the Donbas, which is composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on July 4 the Russian forces were currently focusing their efforts on pushing toward the line of Siversk, Fedorivka, and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
The Russian Army also has intensified the shelling of the key Ukrainian strongholds of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk deeper in the Donetsk region.
On July 3, six people, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed in the Russian shelling of Slovyansk and another 19 people were wounded, local authorities said. Kramatorsk also came under fire on July 3.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the Russian military had taken the entire territory of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to TASS.
Ukraine’s military command acknowledged on July 3 that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk, saying they had decided to pull back to save the lives of its soldiers.
Luhank’s regional governor Serhiy Hayday told Reuters on July 4 the withdrawal from Lysychansk had been "centralized" and orderly, and was necessary to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers who were in danger of being surrounded.
"In terms of the military, it is bad to leave positions, but there is nothing critical [in the loss of Lysychansk]. We need to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk," Hayday said.
"It hurts a lot, but it's not losing the war,” he said, adding that he expected Slovyansk and the town of Bakhmut in particular to come under attack.
"Still, for them goal No. 1 is the Donetsk region. Slovyansk and Bakhmut will come under attack; Bakhmut has already started being shelled very hard,” he said.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, TASS, and dpa
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[1] Url:
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-war-lysychansk-troops-withdrawn/31925762.html
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