Lisichansk under Russian siege – Ukrainians lose key Hirsch area

THE Ukraine stated that Russian forces had “fully occupied” an area south of it Lisichank city of strategic importance in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine today, and Moscow claimed to have surrounded about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the area.

The loss of Hirsch and several other settlements around it pose a danger that Lisichank, the last large Ukrainian-controlled city of Luhansk, will be blocked on three sides by advancing Russian forces.

“Unfortunately, as of today, the entire Hirsch region is occupied,” Hirsch’s municipal head Oleksiy Babchenko said in a televised statement. “There are some insignificant, local battles going on in the suburbs, but the enemy has entered.”

“There is a red flag waving in the municipal administration (in Hirsch),” a local government spokesman told Reuters by telephone.

The Russian Defense Ministry said today that it was surrounded about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers, including 80 foreign fighters, in Hirsch. Reuters could not confirm the report from another source.

In its daily update today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its forces had “completely isolated” a group of Ukrainian units near Hirsch and Zolote. He said he had surrounded four Ukrainian battalions, an artillery unit and a “detachment of foreign mercenaries”. Half of Zolote is under Russian control, the ministry said, adding that it was launching “incessant attacks” around encircled Ukrainian forces in Hirsch.

Ukraine stated today that troops withdraw from Lisichank’s ‘twin’ city, Sheverodonetska theater of heavy bombardment and street battles for weeks, in a major setback in its struggle against Russian forces.

“Our forces were forced to withdraw and retreat regularly because there was virtually nothing left to defend. “There was no city left and secondly, we could not allow them to be surrounded,” said Oleksandr Musyenko, a military analyst from Kyiv.

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