Video summary of the war Ukraine - Russia: June 20 14:17
(CNN) --
Nearly two months have passed since Russian forces began their assault on the city of Severodonetsk.
But, despite its overwhelming firepower, Russia is still unable to dislodge the determined Ukrainian resistance, nor cut off the supply lines that provide the city's remaining defenders with a trickle of weapons and ammunition.
Ukraine's tight defense of Severodonetsk, despite heavy losses, has forced the Russians to concentrate their firepower in a relatively small area and slowed their efforts to seize the 10% of the Luhansk region they do not already control. .
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the seizure of Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk one of the goals of Moscow's special military operation that began in February.
For now, that operation is largely stalled;
a large part of Donetsk remains beyond the reach of the Russians.
latest war news
Russian forces are making modest gains: The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the town of Metelkino, southeast of Severodonetsk, had been taken.
But the Russians' goal of encircling Ukrainian troops defending the twin cities of Lisychansk and Severodonetsk still seems a long way off.
In a campaign lacking in agility and imagination, the Russians have resorted to one main tactic: overwhelming indirect fire against all Ukrainian positions, regardless of collateral destruction.
advertising
The goal is to leave nothing standing that can be defended.
The use of troops on the ground to seize and hold urban areas has been less frequent and less successful.
"They are throwing everything they have, all the ammunition they have. For them it doesn't matter if it's our positions or civilian areas, they wipe everything off the face of the earth and then they use the artillery and start to advance little by little. said an unidentified Ukrainian soldier in a video of Ukrainian special forces in the area released over the weekend.
Amid heavy urban fighting, some 500 civilians, including dozens of children, have taken refuge at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk.
Unlike the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, it offers little protection underground.
Ukrainian officials say the plant's inhabitants, who previously refused to leave, have food supplies but can no longer be evacuated due to heavy fighting.
But, as in the case of Azovstal, the Azot plant and its surroundings have become the center of Ukrainian resistance, frustrating Russian commanders.
In this Asian country, Ukrainians find an unexpected asylum 2:59
According to the think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington, "Russian troops are likely to face mounting losses and degradation of their troops and equipment, which will complicate attempts to resume offensive operations elsewhere." critics as the slow battle for Severodonetsk continues".
Just as the defense of Mariupol attracted more than a dozen battalion tactical groups, overcoming the resistance in Severodonetsk is proving very laborious.
Reduce resistance, Russia's goal
The Ukrainians claim to have inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces in the area, thanks in part to new equipment from Western allies, including longer-range anti-tank weapons and howitzers supplied by the United States and France.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that units of Russia's 11th Separate Motorized Rifle Regiment had suffered significant losses and were "withdrawn from the zone of combat operations to restore combat capability."
However, Ukrainian supply lines are constantly under attack, and it has become more difficult to transport supplies from further west in the Donetsk region along the road to Lisychansk.
The ISW still hopes that "Russian forces can probably take Severodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area."
The Russians' tactics so far suggest a campaign to reduce resistance south of the city—in places like Syrotyne—and then attack Ukrainian defenses from various directions.
Two US fighters were allegedly detained by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk, according to Russian media
Ukrainian officials say the Russians are increasingly using drones to identify their defensive positions.
"The Russian military monitors the air day and night with drones, adjusts firepower, quickly adapts to our changes in defensive zones," said Serhii Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration.
In the rest of the active front line, which stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers, little territory is ceded or taken.
The Russians' primary goals in Donbas are to seize the industrial city and transport hub of Sloviansk and the city of Bakhmut, both in Donetsk, but they have made very limited progress towards either goal.
They may also be vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks to the south and west of the city of Izium.
The south of Ukraine presents a different picture.
The Russians appear to be consolidating gains made in the early days of the war, along lines that allow them to defend a coastal belt in depth.
Ukrainian counterattacks towards the city of Kherson have made limited progress, as the Russians are now well entrenched and show little appetite for trying to gain more territory.
As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday after his second visit to Kyiv: "Time is the vital factor. Everything will depend on Ukraine being able to strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity." Of attack".
This American fears that 2 colleagues have been captured by Russia 2:53
fragile morale
Some of Ukraine's best military units have been punished during the defense of Donbas.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN last week that tens of thousands of Ukrainians had been killed since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
Probably the vast majority have been soldiers.
The UK Ministry of Defense assessed this weekend that Ukrainian forces have probably suffered from defections in recent weeks, although it believes that Russian morale is much more fragile.
Thus, it is not only a question of providing the Ukrainian forces with precise long-range weapons, but also of intensifying training.
Johnson is pushing a plan for allies to develop the potential to train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.
Despite their losses, and even while deploying older T62 tanks in some places, Russian forces maintain vast superiority in armor and combat aircraft.
And despite a heavy and predictable strategy, they can continue to erase the Ukrainian defenses.
Video surfaced over the weekend revealing the extent of the destruction in Lyman, near Sloviansk, just as Popasna and Rubizhne, further east, were leveled in April.
But with an accelerating flow of weapons capable of offsetting Russia's advantage in heavy artillery and rocket systems, Ukrainian forces could still prevent the enemy from inflicting such devastation on more towns and cities further west.
war in ukraine
