Russia controls most of Severodonetsk, governor says

Here are the updates from across the country:

Severodonetsk: Russian reserve forces have joined the battle for the besieged city, one of Ukraine’s last strongholds in the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday. The invaders now control most of the city as fighting continues on the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway and the Azot industrial zone, where a fire has broken out. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, both sides are likely to suffer a large number of casualties in the street fighting.

Elsewhere in the Donbass: Russian shelling damaged power lines in the northern part of the Donetsk region, forcing power substations to close and leaving people without power in some of the region’s biggest cities, including Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Kostiantynivka, Bakhmut and Druzhkivka, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Telegram.

Sloviansk: Russian forces are advancing towards this city in the Donetsk region, where they have made minor gains north of the city. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War predicts that it will be difficult to successfully attack Sloviansk due to difficulties in crossing the Siverskyi Donets River.

Kherson: In Russian-held Kherson, Ukrainian forces have made progress in their counterattack against Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday. Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Tavriis’ke, and there was “some success” in the Zaporizhzhia region as well, he said.

Mariupol: Ukraine’s prosecutor general said the deaths of 24 more children had been recorded in the now Russian-controlled southern city, bringing the confirmed number of children killed in Ukraine since the start of the war to 287.