Ukraine War: Fighting intensifies in Sievierodonetsk as British MoD says Russia suffering major losses among mid and junior officers

Russian forces stormed the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk after trying unsuccessfully to encircle the strategic city, Ukrainian officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation there as “indescribably difficult,” with a relentless Russian artillery barrage destroying critical infrastructure and damaging 90% of the buildings.

“Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a principal task for the occupation force,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the Russians don’t care about casualties.

The city’s mayor said the fighting had knocked out power and cellphone service and forced a humanitarian relief centre to shut down because of the dangers.

The deteriorating conditions raised fears that Sieverodonetsk could become the next Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov that spent nearly three months under Russian siege before the last Ukrainian fighters surrendered.

Russia also stepped up its efforts to capture the nearby city of Lysychansk, where civilians rushed to escape persistent shelling.

The two eastern cities span the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River. They are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, which makes up the Donbas together with the adjacent Donetsk region.

Russia has kept up its bombardment of the northeastern city from afar, and explosions could be heard shortly after Zelenskyy’s visit.

Shelling and airstrikes have destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings in the city since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, according to the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov.

After failing to seize Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Russia is now focused on occupying parts of Donbas not already controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined officials in Kharkiv on Sunday for his first visit to the eastern frontline since Russia’s assault on the country began.

“I feel boundless pride in our defenders. Every day, risking their lives, they fight for Ukraine’s freedom,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app after the visit.

In a video address later Sunday, Zelenskyy praised Kharkiv regional officials but said he had fired the regional head of the country’s top security agency, the SBU, for his poor performance. In the wider Kharkiv region, Russian troops still held about one-third of the territory, Zelenskyy said.

Russia has likely suffered devastating losses among its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict in Ukraine, according to the latest defence intelligence update published by the British Ministry of Defence.

The MoD said that brigade and battalion commanders are likely deploying forwards into harm’s way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their units’ performance.

At the same time, junior officers have had to lead the lowest level tactical actions, with the Russian army lacking the cadre of highly trained and empowered non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who fulfil that role in Western forces.

“The loss of large proportions of the younger generation of professional officers will likely exacerbate its ongoing problems in modernising its approach to command and control,” the ministry said.

“More immediately, battalion tactical groups (BTGs) which are being reconstituted in Ukraine from survivors of multiple units are likely to be less effective due to a lack of junior leaders.”

The invasion, now in its fourth month, has killed thousands of people in Ukraine and displaced millions. There are some 14,388 cases of Russian alleged war crimes being probed by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office and several Russian soldiers have pleaded guilty in cases of shelling Ukraine and killing civilians.

LENS, AP, AFP