After the fall of Mariupol, whose last bastion of resistance cloistered in the Azovstal steelworks was captured on Friday, the Russians are trying to establish their authority in the East.
On the 87th day of the war in Ukraine, Russian soldiers are pounding to such an extent that some fear Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast will suffer the same fate as the port city now in Russian hands.
Severondonetsk worries about its civilians
According to the regional administration, the Russians destroyed the Pavlograd bridge which linked Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, in the Luhansk region.
"This will greatly complicate the evacuation and delivery of humanitarian aid," said Serhiy Hayday, the city's mayor.
Severodonetsk is one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in the region and is the subject of very intense bombardments.
15,000 inhabitants would be trapped in the cellars of the city which has 100,000 inhabitants in normal times.
Concern over the fate of Azovstal soldiers
On Friday, the Russian army announced that the last Ukrainian defenders of the strategic city of Mariupol, holed up for weeks in the huge Azovstal steelworks, had surrendered.
Since then, there has been little news about their conditions of detention.
Among them are members of the Azov regiment, an ultranationalist unit that the Kremlin considers "neo-Nazi", and that kyiv hopes to free in exchange for Russian prisoners.
According to statements by a Russian deputy on Saturday, Russia plans to exchange them for the release of oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of Vladimir Putin.
The Donbass still affected
To the east, all of Donbass has been under Russian bombs since Putin redirected his attack towards this objective.
The Ukrainian General Staff noted in its daily morning brief this Sunday that the Russian army was continuing "its missile and air strikes throughout the territory", and had even "increased the intensity by using aviation to destroy critical infrastructure”.
The Russians also continue to attack areas further north.
A Russian missile strike reportedly damaged 1,000 apartments and 11 educational institutions in Lozova, Kharkiv region, according to the city's mayor, Serkiy Zelensky.
The shooting was reportedly carried out on May 20, but the toll could not be released until now.
The Kharkiv region is subject to regular strikes.
