Ukrainian leaders warn of dire situation in key eastern city of Severodonetsk

Russian troops are working on “erasing Severodonetsk from the face of the earth,” a regional official said this weekend, telling of how the city is becoming the eastern focus of the Kremlin’s months-long invasion.

“Every day they are trying to break the line of defense,” Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said in a Ukrainian-media interview that he posted to his Telegram channel Sunday. “’Round-the-clock there is shelling, and unfortunately the Russian army chose the scorched earth tactic against the city of Severodonetsk: They are simply systematically destroying the city. Everywhere is being shelled constantly.”

After claiming the southeastern port city of Mariupol on Friday, the Kremlin has focused troops on Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region, which the Luhansk governor described as an “outpost” that was holding off Russian forces and buying time for other areas.

“This allows, on one hand, for our troops in the Kharkiv region to clear out, deoccupy our territories with greater ease; and on the other hand, the Donetsk region gets a little bit more time to build out the fortifications a bit,” Haidai said. “But we cannot say that it’s peace and quiet in the Donetsk region: It is also suffering constant shelling, rocket fire, airstrikes, constant attempts at breaking the defense near Liman.”

Moscow’s tanks have been firing on residential buildings while moving down streets of the eastern Ukrainian city, Haidai said, “simply erasing Severodonetsk from the face of the earth.”

The Washington Post could not verify Haidai’s assertions Sunday evening.

A journalist from Channel 24 asked Haidai whether Russian troops would “calm down if their attack on Severodonetsk succeeds.”

“No, of course not,” Haidai said. “The Russian army only calms down where it gets ‘calmed down,’ meaning they will stop where they get stopped.”

The battle for eastern Ukraine is becoming increasingly bloody, with up to 100 Ukrainian fighters killed each day, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The situation is especially dire in Severodonetsk — one of the last major cities in eastern Luhansk region still in Kyiv’s control — with a high-ranking official saying it is becoming “a new Mariupol.”

Severodonetsk: Russian forces continued their ground assaults around this key city in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, but they did not make any confirmed advances, according to Ukraine’s military command. The head of the Luhansk region said Russian troops are bombarding the city constantly, using “scorched earth” tactics.

Mykolaiv: Nine people have been wounded by Russian airstrikes in Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, the regional council said Sunday. Residential buildings were destroyed in three communities over the weekend, the council added. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, its rockets hit a Bukovel mobile antidrone system near Hannivka, about 60 miles northeast of Mykolaiv.

Enerhodar: The Russian-appointed mayor of this southeastern Ukrainian town — which was captured by Kremlin forces in March — was in intensive care after an explosion on Sunday, according to the town’s Ukrainian mayor. Russian state news agency Tass offered a conflicting report of his condition, quoting an unnamed military official as saying that he had a minor wound.

Kyiv: Pentagon and State Department officials have discussed potential plans to send Special Forces to Kyiv to protect diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in the Ukrainian capital, the Pentagon confirmed Sunday. Such a move could be seen as a provocation by Moscow.

Mariupol: The mayor of Mariupol has warned that the Russian-occupied port city is “on the verge of an outbreak of infectious diseases” because of the war.

Paulina Villegas and Victoria Bisset contributed to this report.

A site that usually showcases Russian business leaders and investors during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort town of Davos has been transformed into an exhibition of possible Russian war crimes.

The Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre worked with Ukrainian officials, artists and media outlets to dress the “Russia House” with depictions of war and to “highlight how Ukrainians defend democracy and their freedom not only in a physical war, but also in a social and political front,” according to a news release from the foundation.

The foundation, named for Ukrainian businessman and oligarch Victor Pinchuk, “aims to inform about the main facts, share faces, names and dates and provide at least some of the victims a platform from which to tell their real story,” the news release says.

Russia has denied committing war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine. Its representatives were not invited to this year’s Davos gathering after a two-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ukraine is expected to be a main topic at the gathering of international business leaders, the Associated Press reported, and President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to address the leaders Monday via video.

Russian forces have focused their efforts on encircling Severodonetsk, one of the last big cities under Ukrainian control in the eastern Luhansk province.

The city, which had a prewar population of about 100,000, could become the next major battlefield now that a drawn-out struggle over the port city of Mariupol has ended. Russia is attempting to gain control of the Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian forces are “throwing everything that they have at it,” said Matthew Schmidt, associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven. After failing in other major efforts, he said, “they’re down to winning these tactical battles.”

He said Moscow has struggled with combat effectiveness, taking enormous losses of officers and stitching together “Frankenstein” groups made up of troops from different units. Many are exhausted.

Russian forces “need a win,” Schmidt said. Because they lack officers capable of leading effective offenses against Ukraine, they are trying to get one in Severodonetsk by overwhelming the Ukrainians with firepower. Schmidt said the Russians are “bludgeoning their way through” in a way that could have dire consequences for civilians, as in Mariupol.

“They’re just pounding Ukrainians with artillery,” Schmidt said.

For Moscow, he said, the stakes are high. A loss would be “devastating to their morale and strategic position.” Even a win could come with costly troop casualties and equipment losses. Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, could then fall back to a safe, offensive position from which they could keep the pressure on Russia, Schmidt said.

The Russian-appointed mayor of a Ukrainian town was in intensive care after an explosion on Sunday, according to the town’s Ukrainian mayor.

Dmytro Orlov, the Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, announced on Telegram that Andrei Shevchik and his bodyguards were hospitalized after an explosion that is being investigated.

Russian state news agency Tass offered a conflicting report of Shevchik’s condition, quoting an unnamed military official as saying that Shevchik had a minor wound and was being treated in Melitopol, a two-hour drive from Enerhodar.

Russian forces appointed Shevchik mayor after they captured the southeastern city in early March. Ukrainians still recognize Orlov as Enerhodar’s mayor.

Pentagon and State Department officials have discussed potential plans to send Special Forces to Kyiv to protect the U.S. diplomats at the embassy there now that operations have resumed, the Pentagon confirmed Sunday.

The discussions, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, involve the possibility of deploying troops to help secure the embassy; for example, assisting in the event that U.S. staff members need to be extracted if battles reemerge in the Ukrainian capital, according to the newspaper.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement to The Washington Post on Sunday that the Pentagon and the State Department have been evaluating “potential security requirements” for the newly reopened embassy but “no decisions have been made.”

Kirby said there have been preliminary planning discussions, but that “no specific proposals have been debated — at senior levels of the department about the return of U.S. military members to Ukraine for that or any other purpose.”

If President Biden were to approve such a course of action, it could be interpreted by Moscow in several ways, and potentially seen as a provocation — making the decision particularly tricky.

The Biden administration has played a delicate balancing act of asserting strong support for Ukraine during the war through economic sanctions, sending millions in weapons and training thousands of Ukrainian troops. But it has drawn a hard line at sending troops into the country.

For now, the State Department will provide its own security for the embassy in Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Authorities in the Luhansk region are pressing civilians to evacuate as Russia continues its advance in eastern Ukraine.

“Police urge you not to procrastinate, take care of your safety and the safety of your children and evacuate!” regional police said in a Saturday post on Telegram. They described shelling in the area as unbearable and said they have been working to help the wounded.

Russian forces destroyed a bridge into the city of Severodonetsk on Saturday that was used for evacuations and aid deliveries. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said that “if they destroy one more bridge, then the city will be fully cut off, unfortunately.”

In a TV interview, he said people are still being evacuated, despite the heavy shelling. About 10,000 people remain in Severodonetsk, a city that had a prewar population of more than 100,000. Most of those who remain “are almost constantly in bomb shelters,” Haidai said.

Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman, warned in a Telegram post that Severodonetsk is becoming “a new Mariupol.” The southern port city has been left in ruins after months of heavy Russian bombardment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that as many as 100 soldiers are killed in his nation’s hard-hit eastern region each day.

Zelensky made the remarks in response to a question at a news conference alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda after both men addressed the Ukrainian parliament.

“Today, between 50 and 100 people might be killed on the most difficult front, in the east,” he said. “They are defending our country and our independence.”

Ukraine has released relatively little information on battleground deaths. Oleksiy Arestovych, a Zelensky adviser, told BBC Ukraine in March that the country had suffered “considerable” losses but that it would not reveal numbers until the end.

NATO estimated in March that Russia had lost 7,000 to 15,000 fighters in the first six weeks of battle.

Zelensky made the comment after he was asked about a petition calling to lift a prohibition on most Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 leaving the country. The petition, filed on the president’s website, has drawn more than 25,000 signatures.

He said he did not know whether he was the best person to address the plea — saying that it instead might be directed to the parents of those who “sacrificed their lives.”

“For the most part, they weren’t even defending the cities where they were born,” Zelensky said.