Russia and Ukraine star in tough battles in Luhansk 1:29
(CNN Spanish) --
Four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fighting continues to intensify in the east, in the Donbas region where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting with Kyiv forces for eight years.
There, Russia has launched an offensive after its failed attempt to take the Ukrainian capital earlier in the war, and eyes have turned on the city of Sloviansk.
In April, when Moscow decided to transfer its military effort to the east of the country after the failures in the north, experts anticipated that Sloviansk, in Donetsk, one of the two oblasts — along with Luhansk, already captured by Russia — in dispute between Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels, could become one of the main targets of the Russian forces.
Like the city of Kramatorsk.
The fight for Sloviansk could be the "next crucial battle" of the war in Ukraine
In June, the Russians tried to launch an attack on two towns north and northwest of Sloviansk — Barvinkove and Sviatohirsk — but were unsuccessful, Ukraine's military said.
And in recent days Sloviansk and much of Donetsk have been heavily bombed by Russia: six people were killed in the city and 21 wounded in one of these attacks.
In this regard, the head of the Sloviansk military administration, Vadym Liakh, said on Wednesday that Russia is likely to try to mount an offensive towards the city, adding that Ukrainian forces are currently holding off Moscow's armies at the Siverskyi Donets River.
advertising
Ukrainian servicemen are seen riding atop an armored personnel carrier in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on July 5. (Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Liakh also explained that the situation inside the city is "tense" given the intensification of shelling in recent weeks, with several dead and wounded.
Why capturing the eastern city of Sloviansk has been a key objective for Russian forces
"Critical infrastructure is working, but there has been no centralized water supply for more than a month," he said.
"There are also problems with electricity, about a third of the population is periodically without electricity. We restore it, but the enemy destroys it again."
But why is Sloviansk so important to Russia?
Basic data
Sloviansk is located in the Donetsk oblast – equivalent to a region or province – in eastern Ukraine and about 800 kilometers from Kyiv, and on the Kazenyi Torets River, a tributary of the Siverskyi Donets.
Precisely, the current front line is now along the Siverskyi Donets river, a "natural obstacle" that Russia has not been able to overcome and that is about 10 kilometers from the city.
Sloviansk is an old, industrial city: it was founded in 1674, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and has historically been a center of chemical and manufacturing production.
Why did Russia attack and invade Ukraine?
What are the reasons and the origin of the conflict?
Before the war it had a population of about 100,000, but this number has been shrinking as authorities urge people to evacuate the area.
An estimated 23,000 are still in the city, according to Liakh.
Pro-Russian supporters in central Sloviansk in April 2014, when the city was briefly under separatist control.
(Credit: GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Sloviansk was hit hard during the 2014 war in Donbas, briefly in the hands of pro-Russian rebels before they were pushed back by Ukrainian forces in July of that year.
Why is Sloviansk strategic?
Sloviansk is still in Ukrainian hands, but the main Ukrainian cities around it — such as Izium to the north, Luhansk to the east and Donetsk to the south — are under Russian or pro-Russian rebel control.
This results in a "bulge", in military terms of territory dominated by Kyiv forces and almost surrounded by Moscow troops.
A Ukrainian truck hauls a destroyed armored vehicle in Sloviansk in February 2015. (Credit: VOLODYMYR SHUVAYEV/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the beginning of the war, Russia has declared its intentions towards Donetsk and Lugansk.
President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of both oblasts days before the invasion.
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN in March that Ukraine must accept this independence as the basis for peace negotiations.
Russia had other demands at the beginning of the war besides the effective independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, but after its apparent military setbacks at the beginning of the war, this seems to have become its main objective.
And, for now, Moscow is moving forward.
When and how could the war in Ukraine come to an end?
5 possible scenarios for an outcome
In addition, the complete capture of the Donbas could come soon, US officials say.
But to complete that capture and claim that victory, they must take Sloviansk.
A woman waits at the Uzhhorod railway station after being evacuated from Sloviansk on March 24, 2022. (Credit: Zuzana Gogova/Getty Images)
"Russian forces probably intend to cut off Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine and will need to take Sloviansk as their minimum step to do so," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report in April.
Max Strelnyk, a deputy from the Izium city hall office, told CNN in April that Russian troops "are going south, towards Kamyanka, because it is the road that leads to the city of Sloviansk."
"We have radio intercepts of your conversations - your task is to capture the Donetsk region from the north."
While Vadym Denysenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, pointed out that "if we talk about the key directions in which the fighting will take place, they are Sloviansk [Donetsk region] and Barvinkove [Kharkiv region]".
With reporting by Rob Picheta, Alex Stambaugh, Nathan Hodge, Yulia Kesaieva, and Tim Lister.
war in ukraine
