UKRAINE
Ukraine war situation report – day 106
June 9, 2022 - The battle for the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is brutal and will determine the fate of the Donbas region, president Zelenskiy said, as Russian troops lay waste to the city in an assault aimed at controlling eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, said that it is currently impossible to evacuate people out of the city, but if the west could supply long-range weapons, Ukrainian forces would be able to “clean up Severodonetsk in two or three days”.
Ukrainian forces still control all of Severodonetsk's smaller twin city Lysychansk on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, but Russian forces were destroying residential buildings there, Haidai said.
West of Severodonetsk in Slovyansk, most residents have fled but authorities say around 24,000 remain in the city, in the path of an expected assault by Russian forces regrouping to the north.
Meanwhile, UN’s chief Antonio Guterres warns the consequences for the world are worsening because of Russia’s invasion, and the “impact on food security, energy and finance” is “severe”.