Civilians urged to flee artillery onslaught in east Ukraine city

CIVILIANS were today urged to flee the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, which was suffering “catastrophic” damage from shelling by Vladimir Putin’s army.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk province, issued the plea amid reports that Russian forces were advancing on the city from multiple directions. “The situation in the city is very difficult,” Mr Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Mr Putin’s forces had entered Lysychansk from five directions and were isolating Ukrainian defenders, a separatist official claimed.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said the Russians were using artillery to try to cut off the city from the south. Russian assault aircraft struck near the city, it added. The city of Severodonetsk, across the Siverskyi Donets river from Lysychansk, fell to pro-Russian forces on Saturday. Russian missiles also struck a residential building in central Kyiv yesterday, killing one and wounding six, officials said.

They were the first attacks on the capital in weeks and were condemned as “barbarism” by Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Germany where the US president, Boris Johnson and other world leaders were pushing for continued unity against Russia’s invasion.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said missiles also struck the central city of Cherkasy yesterday, hitting a bridge linking the country’s west with eastern battle fields. A missile strike in the Odesa region destroyed homes, caused a fire and injured six, including a child, said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the regional administration.

Meanwhile, British defence chiefs said Mr Putin’s military campaign in Ukraine will increasingly rely in coming weeks on “part-time” volunteer reservists and veterans returning to the army.