Saturday’s rapid advance did not end with Izium, as Ukraine appeared to have opened a new front against Russian defenses on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The head of the regional military command for Luhansk, Serhiy Hayday, said that the city of Lysychansk was the target of the new attack.
Lysychansk was the last town in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region to fall under Russian control in July after weeks of heavy fighting. Headey told CNN on Saturday “the occupiers, including the collaborators and the military, are running fast.”
“The locals have video and photos to prove it,” Hayday said. He said visuals cannot be shared for security reasons.
“Those from Svatove, Starobilsk, Novopskov are trying to leave, not to Luhansk, but to the border with Russia in Milove,” he added.
CNN is unable to verify Hayday’s claim, but at least one border crossing with Russia has seen lines of vehicles forming.
Hayday also told CNN that the Russians have failed to build a defensive line in Luhansk. “Svatove, Starobilsk — this is open rural countryside, so there’s nowhere to hide.”
He claimed that Russian forces were leaving the town of Svatove. If true, it would be significant as Svatove is a key link in Russian supply lines to parts of the occupied Luhansk region.
In another sign of Ukraine’s progress, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, admitted that the situation in northern Donetsk had become “quite tough”.
Pushilin said on his Telegram channel that in the city of Liman, not far from the Ukrainian-controlled city of Sloviansk, “the situation is quite tough, as well as in several settlements in the northern part of the Republic.” I am in contact with the local administrations, with the emergency services and with our units. There is more information but I cannot disclose it at present as it may harm our units,” he said.
