Last city fallen in Luhansk?

Putin's "bloodhound" reports taking Lysychansk

Created: 03/07/2022 04:53

By: Felix Durach

Pro-Russian troops report taking the city of Lysychansk.

Ukraine initially continued to speak of hard fighting.

The news ticker.

• Russian forces

  apparently take

  central Lysychansk

  : Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said the city was under Russian control.

• Russia

  focuses on

  Donbass

  : Vladimir Putin's troops continue to attack eastern Ukraine.

• Ukraine accuses Russia of using

  phosphorus bombs

  on

  Snake

  Island: Russia is said to have attacked the island in the Black Sea with planes on Friday.

• This

  news ticker

  about military events in the

  Ukraine war

  is updated regularly.

Update from July 2, 10:26 p.m .:

According to their own statements, pro-Russian separatists, together with Russian soldiers, took control of the city administration building in the heavily contested eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk.

That said the separatist representative Andrei Marochko of the Russian agency Interfax on Saturday evening.

Similar reports had previously been made by the President of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

This information could not be independently verified.

Russian forces apparently take center of Lysychansk

Update from July 2, 7.45 p.m .:

According to their own statements, Russian forces have advanced to the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk.

This was stated by the President of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov on Saturday.

A little later, Kadyrov also announced that Lysychansk was now under Russian control.

This was also reported by the Ria Nowosti news agency, citing its correspondent.

Already in the afternoon Russian troops had reported the complete encirclement of the city

.

However, the Ukrainian military did not confirm the loss of the city.

The information cannot currently be independently verified.

Lysychansk is the last major city in Luhansk Oblast still under Ukrainian control.

Should the Russian military actually manage to take the city, the armed forces would control almost the entire Donbas.

A declared goal of the Russian army leadership.

Kadyrov has been President of Chechnya since 2007 and is a loyal servant of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

The 45-year-old is considered the "bloodhound" of the Kremlin boss.

Troops from Chechnya have been taking part in the fighting since the start of the Ukraine war in February.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov announced that Lysychansk was now under full Russian control.

© IMAGO/Yelena Afonina

War in Ukraine: Russian troops report encirclement of Lyssychansk

Update from July 2, 4:32 p.m .:

While pro-Russian fighters claim to have completely surrounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, the Ukrainian side also speaks of fierce fighting, but continues to describe the city as contested.

The governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Hayday said the Russians were trying to storm Lysychansk from different directions.

Lysychansk is the last large town in the Luhansk region that the Ukrainian troops have recently held.

Last week, the Ukrainian military had to give up the city of Sievjerodonetsk, which is only across the river from Lyssychansk.

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Meanwhile, the Ukrainian newspaper

reports on rocket attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, citing information from Ukraine's Southern Operations Command.

Accordingly, Russia fired ten Onyx rockets at the city, specifically targeting the city's port and industrial infrastructure.

This information could not initially be verified by an independent party.

The bridge between the cities of Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk was almost completely destroyed by the Ukraine war (archive photo, June 19).

© IMAGO/Madeleine Kelly/Zuma Wire

Lysychansk completely surrounded: Pro-Russian troops report success in eastern Ukraine

Update from July 2, 1:55 p.m .:

According to their own statements, the pro-Russian fighters in Ukraine have completely surrounded the embattled city of Lyssychansk in the east of the country.

Together with Russian troops, "the last strategic hills" were conquered today, a representative of the separatists told the Russian news agency

.

"With that, we can report that Lysychansk is completely encircled."

Lysychansk's neighboring city of Sievjerodonetsk was captured by Russian troops a week ago after weeks of fighting.

Both cities belong to the Luhansk region, one of the two sub-regions of the Donbass.

Should Russian troops also capture Lysychansk, they could then target Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, the second Donbass sub-region.

Ukraine war: Russia apparently uses inaccurate missiles - "collateral damage"

Update from July 2, 12:35 p.m .:

According to British assessments, Russia is increasingly relying on inaccurate missiles in its attacks in Ukraine.

The reason is probably that the supplies of modern, accurate weapons are dwindling, said the Ministry of Defense in London.

Analysis of surveillance footage showed that the shopping center in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was very likely hit by a Ch-32 missile, the agency said, citing intelligence.

This is a further development of the Soviet rocket Ch-22 (NATO code: AS-4 Kitchen), which is still not optimized for hitting ground targets accurately, especially in cities.

"This greatly increases the likelihood of collateral damage when targeting built-up areas," the ministry said.

Ch-22 missiles are believed to have been used in attacks on the southwestern Ukrainian region of Odessa on June 30.

"These weapons are even less accurate and unsuitable for targeted attacks and have almost certainly resulted in repeated civilian casualties in recent weeks," it said.

It was also emphasized that Russian forces around the embattled city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine were able to gain small amounts of terrain thanks to ongoing air and artillery attacks.

However, Ukrainian units would apparently block the advance in the south-eastern suburbs of the city. 

Russia focuses on Donbass - attacks continue across the board

Update from July 2, 10:50 a.m

.: In the Ukraine war, Russia is increasingly focusing on the east of the country.

Kyiv reports attacks on a broad front, for example in the Kharkiv area (see previous update).

According to information from Kyiv, Russia is continuing its attacks on a broad front in eastern Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian General Staff reported Russian airstrikes from the Avdiivka area (Donetsk Oblast).

In the Black Sea, on the other hand, Russia continues to block Ukraine's sea connections.

British intelligence said this morning that Ukrainian troops are still preventing Russia from entering the south-eastern outskirts of Lysychansk.

Lysychansk is the last major Ukrainian-held city in the Luhansk Oblast, on Friday Ukraine fended off an attack on a gelatine plant.

A tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces drives in Lysychansk.

© IMAGO/Alex Chan Tsz Yuk

Update from July 2, 7:23 a.m .:

In eastern and southern Ukraine, positions of the Ukrainian army along the entire front line have been shelled by Russian troops with artillery.

Dozens of locations in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Mykolayiv and Kherson Oblasts were listed in the Ukrainian General Staff report published on Facebook on Friday.

There were also isolated attacks by airplanes and helicopters, it said.

Ukrainian units repelled a Russian attack on a gelatine plant near the industrial city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region.

The reports cannot be independently verified.

Ukraine accuses Russia of using phosphorus bombs on Snake Island

First report from July 1:

Kiev – Ukraine accuses Russia of using phosphorus bombs in the fighting for Snake Island in the Black Sea.

Russian troops "twice carried out airstrikes with phosphorus bombs" on Friday evening, wrote the supreme commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeriy Zalushny, via Telegram.

Yesterday, Thursday, the Russian army leadership announced that it would withdraw from the island.

Moscow had spoken of a "gesture of goodwill".

Ukraine has accused Russia of using phosphorus bombs on Snake Island in the Black Sea.

© Maxar Technologies /dpa

Ukraine War: Supreme Commander presents videos of phosphorus bomb attack

According to Salushny, the bombs were dropped by Su-30 fighter jets that took off from Crimea.

The 48-year-old presented a video recording that is intended to prove the bombing.

"The only thing the opponent is consistent about is the unchanged 'accuracy'," he emphasized ironically, referring to apparently missed throws.

However, the information cannot currently be independently verified.

Ukraine-News: Ukraine reports attack on Snake Island with phosphorus bombs

The island of snakes is almost 35 kilometers off the Danube Delta and was a restricted military area as a border outpost even before the start of the war.

It is not the first time that Kyiv has reported the use of phosphorus bombs by Russian troops in the Ukraine war.

Phosphorus bombs generate temperatures of up to 1300 degrees Celsius when they explode.

The resulting fires cannot be extinguished with water and the fumes are highly toxic.

However, the Geneva Conventions do not prohibit the general use of weapons containing white phosphorus.

However, the use of phosphorus bombs against civilians is prohibited by the additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions of 1977. However, the use of the weapons is condemned by many organizations.