Ukraine Local officials say the withdrawal from Lisichansk is "difficult" but the right decision
The decision to withdraw troops from Lisichansk is "very difficult" but the right decision, according to Lugansk Regional Military Administration Director Heydai. Considering that Ukrainian forces would suffer greater losses if they tried to hold out longer, this was the right decision.
Russia now controls Lischichansk, the last city in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region still under Ukrainian control. The Ukrainian military announced on Sunday that it had been "forced to withdraw" from the important city.
Lisichansk is already in ruins
"It is possible to hold on longer, but at a high cost. Hold on there for another two weeks? Then the Russian army will break through from the surrounding areas and then surround our troops in Lisichansk. At that point we would have lost the entire team," Haydai said
"Obviously, it was very painful and very difficult, but now the fighters are alive, the equipment is intact and everyone is able to continue fighting the Russian army," he added
Haydai. Calling for more Western support, he acknowledged Russia's superiority in the amount of equipment deployed in the area
The ruins of Lischichansk
He said: "They deployed an incredible amount of military equipment for this attack, from early to early. There were shellings every night, and thousands of pieces of equipment, thousands of new pieces of equipment, and new cannon fodder were brought to the position. "Our defenders will continue to fight and we will wait until we receive foreign weapons in sufficient quantities to be able to stop the enemy, because unfortunately the advantage of the Russian army's artillery at the moment is simply enormous." "
The region has been under siege for nearly five months: Haydai praised the courage of the Ukrainian army.
He said: "30% of the oblast had been occupied before the war, so our troops had 70% left to establish a defensive line. “This is the right decision – we have been resisting in a relatively small area for almost five months, since February 24, March, April, May, June and now July.
Lischichansk Streets
The next target for the remaining cities in Donbass: Haydai went on to say that Russia may attack the remaining cities in the Donetsk Oblast that are still under Ukrainian control, trying to capture the entire Donbass. .
"They aspire to occupy the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions. To achieve that, they were taking incredibly crazy losses," he explained. "They also needed to take a break there to catch their breath and somewhere increase their ammunition reserves again. "
"As soon as we leave, they will immediately declare that they are part of the Russian Federation," he said. “So when we get enough weapons and start taking back our territory, they’re going to scream that Ukraine attacked Russia. "
Firefighters put out the fire
Haidai concluded by saying that Ukraine will continue to regain any lost territory. He said: "I am absolutely convinced that we will regain Luhansk Oblast .
Ukraine says Russia is preparing to attack Donetsk region after Luhansk
Ukraine's military General Staff says Russian troops are preparing to continue attacks on the remaining Ukrainian-controlled city in Luhansk oblast, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said. Attack on Donetsk city controlled by Kiev
In an update on the situation earlier on Monday, the Ukrainian military said: "In the direction of Slovyansk, enemy troops are trying to attack through a surprise operation. "
The focus of the war has now shifted to the two largest central cities in the region, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
"The enemy is regrouping its troops to resume the offensive. For this purpose, a battalion tactical group of the enemy moved from the area of ​​​​Izium city in the direction of the settlement of Snizhkovka and deployed additional artillery units."
In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy along the line of contact with rocket launchers stepped up the bombardment of our troops' positions
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