Ukrainian military chiefs have made a “strategically sound, however painful” decision to withdraw from Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine allowing Vladimir Putin’s troops to gain control of large parts of the city, defence experts said on Wednesday.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the Russian president was throwing huge resources into a “desperate and bloody push” to seize territory in eastern Ukraine that will give him “largely symbolic gains”.
Russian troops have now taken control of most of the eastern industrial city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas region, said regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
Nearly all critical infrastructure in Severodonetsk had been destroyed and 60 per cent of residential property damaged beyond repair, he added, stressing that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver aid or evacuate people.
A Russian victory in Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets river would give Mr Putin’s generals full control of Luhansk, one of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
A pro-Moscow separatist leader said Russian proxies had advanced slower than expected to “maintain the city’s infrastructure” and exercise caution around its chemical factories.
“We can say already that a third of Severodonetsk is already under our control,” Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, as saying.
Mr Gaidai warned Severodonetsk residents not to leave bomb shelters due to what he said was a Russian air strike on a nitric acid tank.
Luhansk People’s Republic’s police officers claimed Ukraine’s forces had damaged it. Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists traded accusations over a similar incident in April.
In its latest update, the ISW said: “Russian President Vladimir Putin has chosen...to concentrate all the forces and resources that can be scraped together in a desperate and bloody push to seize areas of eastern Ukraine that will give him largely symbolic gains.
“The Ukrainian leadership has apparently wisely avoided matching Putin’s mistaken prioritisation.”
The Washington-based think tank added: “Ukrainian forces are now apparently withdrawing from Severodonetsk rather than fighting to the end - a factor that has allowed the Russians to move into the city relatively rapidly after beginning their full-scale assault.
Both the decision to avoid committing more resources to saving Severodonetsk and the decision to withdraw from it were strategically sound, however painful. Ukraine must husband its more limited resources and focus on regaining critical terrain rather than on defending ground whose control will not determine the outcome of the war or the conditions for the renewal of war.”
The ISW said that the Kremlin’s focus on seizing Severodonetsk and the eastern region of Donbas more generally continued to create “vulnerabilities” for Mr Putin’s army in the southern province of Kherson.
The military analysts added: “Kherson is critical terrain because it is the only area of Ukraine in which Russian forces hold ground on the west bank of the Dnipro River.
“If Russia is able to retain a strong lodgment in Kherson when fighting stops it will be in a very strong position from which to launch a future invasion. If Ukraine regains Kherson, on the other hand, Ukraine will be in a much stronger position to defend itself against future Russian attack.”
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk Oblast (province).
“Over 30-31 May, fighting intensified in the streets of Severodonetsk, with Russian forces pushing closer to the town centre.
“Over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters.”
