Russians press assault on eastern Ukrainian city
Associated PressKYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces pounded the city of Lysychansk and its surroundings in an all-out attempt to seize the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province, the governor said Saturday. He also said Russian troops “obliterated any potential defensive positions with constant artillery and burned down forests to prevent trench warfare.” Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk are the two provinces that make up the Donbas, where Russia has focused its offensive since pulling back from northern Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv, in the spring. In Slovyansk, a major Donetsk city still under Ukrainian control, four people died when Russian forces fired cluster munitions late Friday, Mayor Vadym Lyakh said on Facebook. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three anti-ship missiles struck “an ordinary residential building, a nine-story building” housing about 160 people.