Ukrainian forces still holding out in the eastern city of Severodonetsk are outnumbered by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, APA reports citing Ukrinfirm.

Both sides fought for the city in street-by-street battles on Monday as artillery shells rained from above.

 

The intensity of fighting there and in nearby Lysychansk has made them both "dead cities", Mr Zelensky said.

If captured, the two strategic targets would deliver Russian forces the entire Luhansk region in Ukraine's east.

Since pulling its forces back from the Kyiv region in March, Russia has refocused its military efforts on Ukraine's eastern Donbas making slow advances there in recent weeks.

Despite the Russians' superior numbers, Mr Zelensky said the Ukrainian defenders were holding out and had "every chance" of fighting back.



Artillery strikes have also intensified on neighbouring Lysychansk, which Mr Zelensky said he had visited on Sunday as part of a tour of the eastern front line.

An elderly resident in the city, Oleksandr Lyakhovets, said a Russian missile had struck his flat soon after, engulfing it in flames.

"They shoot here endlessly... It's a horror show," the 67-year-old told AFP news agency.

https://apa.az/en/europe/ukraine-war-severodonetsk-and-lysychansk-are-dead-cities-zelensky-377863