Lyssytchansk surrounded by pro-Russian separatists, kyiv denies

> Lyssytchansk, in eastern Ukraine, still at the heart of intense fighting

The separatists supported by the Russian army claimed on Saturday July 2 to have « totally » surrounded Lyssytchansk, a city in eastern Ukraine at the heart of intense fighting in recent days. Claims denied in kyiv, which still affirms the « to control ». “Fighting is raging around Lyssychansk. Fortunately, the city is not surrounded and it is under the control of the Ukrainian army”Ruslan Mouzychuk, a spokesman for the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian television.

Earlier, a representative of the Lugansk separatist army, Andrei Marochko, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS, had claimed that « the people’s militia of Lugansk (the separatist army, editor’s note) and the Russian armed forces occupied the last strategic heights, which makes it possible to affirm that the locality of Lyssytchansk is completely surrounded ». Another representative of the separatist authorities, Vitali Kisselev, elaborated on these claims, telling TASS that the fighters « are now in the Chakhtar stadium area »close to the center of this city which had nearly 100,000 inhabitants before the conflict.

Lyssychansk is the last major city in the Lugansk region controlled by the Ukrainian army. It is the twin of that of Severodonetsk, conquered at the end of June by Moscow after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces after a battle lasting several weeks. The two towns are separated by the Donets River. The capture of Lyssytchansk would allow the Russian army to then advance towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two other large cities in the industrial region of Donbass, which Moscow is seeking to conquer.

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> At least four civilians killed in Sloviansk, in the east of the country

Also in the east, at least four civilians have been killed and 12 injured in Sloviansk since Friday morning, according to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko. A rocket attack notably hit inhabited houses on the evening of Friday July 1, causing the death of a woman who was in her garden and injuring her husband, a neighbor told a journalist from Agence France the next morning. -Press (AFP).

> A morning “particularly agitated” in Kharkov

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, » the morning […] was particularly agitated”, said regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov, according to whom missiles hit a district of the city without causing any casualties. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said the Russian Air Force hit the local tractor factory in Kharkiv where troops and equipment from the 10th Assault Brigade were located. of Ukrainian mountain.

> New estimates of the number of victims and refugees:

There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict. On the military level, Western security sources now speak of 15,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers killed. Ukrainian forces are losing around 100 soldiers every day, according to kyiv. No independent figures are available. More than six million Ukrainians are considered internally displaced, according to the latest count on Tuesday June 28 from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). .

Otherwise, « nearly 16 million people in Ukraine today need humanitarian aid: water, food, health services », estimated Thursday, June 30 Osnat Lubrani, the UN humanitarian coordinator in this country. They join the more than 5.2 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in other European states since the start of the conflict on February 24.