Fierce fighting for Severodonetsk. The Ukrainians have retaken almost half the city in a counter-attack. The heavy shelling continues [VIDEOS]

Fierce fighting for Severodonetsk continues. After a successful counter-attack by the Ukrainian forces, in which they managed to regain control of a part of the city, the situation for the Ukrainians has again deteriorated somewhat. At the same time, the Russians have significantly increased their shelling of Severodonetsk.

“After a successful counter-offensive, Ukrainian forces managed to retake almost half the city, but now the situation has again deteriorated a little for us, Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian television, noting that Ukrainian troops are holding positions in the industrial part of the city.

Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Haidaisaid, stressed that the frequency of shelling of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk had increased “dozens of times” and that some towns in the Luhansk region – including Shchastya, Popasna, Rubizhne – “resemble Mariupol”.

“Now they are destroying Severodonetsk and Lysychansk,” the official stated.

Earlier, in messages on Telegram, Haidai also informed about the Russian storming of Bilohorivka and Mykolayivka and air raids on Lysychansk.

There is constant Russian artillery shelling of several settlements, causing damage to civilian infrastructure and fires, according to Haidai ‘s report this morning.

In Lysychansk, rescuers extinguished a fire that managed to cover an area of nearly 1,000 square metres. Among others, bakery plants and multi-storey blocks of flats were destroyed.

One person was injured in the village of Pryvillya. The greatest damage is in the villages of Hirs’ke and Zolote.

For the time being, it is impossible to determine the scale of destruction in Severodonetsk itself, because street fighting is going on in the city.

The Russians, who are seeking to seize the part of the Luhansk oblast that remains under Ukrainian control, entered Severodonetsk last week. The city, as seen among other things in available footage provided by the military, is badly damaged.

On Sunday, Haidai reported that the two sides have controlled half of the city each, meaning that the Ukrainians had managed to retake some areas. However, the Ukrainian authorities are reckoning with the loss of the town and the need to shift defences to neighbouring Lysychansk. This town, too, is under constant shelling by the Russians. Despite the difficult situation, the authorities are evacuating civilians – on Sunday they managed to take out around 100 people.

The successful Ukrainian counterattack in Severodonetsk was written about in a daily report by the US Institute for the Study of War. 

“The ability of Ukrainian forces to successfully counterattack in Severodonetsk, the Kremlin’s current priority area of operations, further indicates the declining combat power of Russian forces in Ukraine,” it stated.