Ukraine announced this Friday (24) that its troops are withdrawing from the city of Severodonetsk, which has been the scene of incessant bombing in recent weeks. Provincial governor Serhiy Gaidai said the fighters had been ordered to move to new positions, but did not specify what the new focus of the Ukrainian defense would be.
“It makes no sense to stay months in devastated regions”, explained Gaidai. Last week, the commander of the Ukrainian Army, Valeri Zaloujny, said that the Russians had a “ten against one” advantage in the region.
Conquering the city, Russia advances more easily through the neighboring region of Donetsk, indispensable for the taking of the Donbas Basin.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in of February this year, Severodonetsk had about 100 thousand inhabitants. Today, it is largely destroyed and deserted. Along with Lyssychank, Severodonetsk became the administrative center of the Ukrainian Donbas, since Moscow-backed separatists settled in the eastern part of the region, in 2014.
