Russia relentlessly shelled Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, with the Luhansk regional governor conceding that Moscow’s forces now control 70% of the city and that evacuation of civilians had been halted.
Some Ukrainian troops were still fighting against the Russian onslaught, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said, but others had retreated.
“There is no possibility to bring in humanitarian aid,” Haidai said in a Telegram post.
But Haidai said that Lysychansk — the only other city in the Luhansk region not taken by Russia or Moscow-backed separatists — remains “fully” under Ukrainian control.
The battle for Sievierodonetsk remains crucial for Russia’s aim to take control of Ukraine’s industrialized Donbas region in the eastern part of the country after it failed earlier during its three-month offensive to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or capture the capital, Kyiv.
Before the war, the city was home to about 120,000 people.
Some material in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.