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POKROVSK, Ukraine , Jul 04 (AP) \u2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared victory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, one day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from their last remaining bulwark of resistance in the province.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin in a televised meeting Monday that Russian forces had taken control of Luhansk, which together with the neighboring Donetsk province makes up Ukraine\u2019s industrial heartland of Donbas.<\/p>\n
Shoigu told Putin that \u201cthe operation\u201d was completed on Sunday after Russian troops overran the city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Luhansk.<\/p>\n
Putin, in turn, said that the military units \u201cthat took part in active hostilities and achieved success, victory\u201d in Luhansk, \u201cshould rest, increase their combat capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s declaration came as Russian forces tried to press their offensive deeper into eastern Ukraine after the Ukrainian military confirmed that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk on Sunday. Luhansk governor Serhii Haidai said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city to avoid being surrounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a risk of Lysychansk encirclement,\u201d Haidai told the Associated Press, adding that Ukrainian troops could have held on for a few more weeks but would have potentially paid too high a price.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe managed to do centralized withdrawal and evacuate all injured,\u201d Haidai said. \u201cWe took back all the equipment, so from this point withdrawal was organized well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces were now focusing their efforts on pushing toward the line of Siversk, Fedorivka and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, about half of which is controlled by Russia. The Russian army has also intensified its shelling of the key Ukrainian strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, deeper in Donetsk.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, six people, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed in the Russian shelling of Sloviansk and another 19 people were wounded, according to local authorities. Kramatorsk also came under fire on Sunday.<\/p>\n
An intelligence briefing Monday from the British Defense Ministry supported the Ukrainian military\u2019s assessment, noting that Russian forces will \u201cnow almost certainly\u201d switch to capturing Donetsk. The briefing said the conflict in Donbas has been \u201cgrinding and attritional,\u201d and is unlikely to change in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
While the Russian army has a massive advantage in firepower, military analysts say that it doesn\u2019t have any significant superiority in the number of troops. That means Moscow lacks resources for quick land gains and can only advance slowly, relying on heavy artillery and rocket barrages to soften Ukrainian defenses.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made capturing the entire Donbas a key goal in his war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month. Moscow-backed separatists in Donbas have battled Ukrainian forces since 2014 when they declared independence from Kyiv after the Russian annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimea. Russia formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics days before its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the withdrawal, but vowed that Ukrainian forces will fight their way back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest fire superiority, in particular this applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing: We will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
Since failing to take Kyiv and other areas in Ukraine\u2019s northeast early in the war, Russia has focused on Donbas, unleashing fierce shelling and engaging in house-to-house combat that devastated cities in the region.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s invasion has also devastated Ukraine\u2019s agricultural sector, disrupting supply chains of seed and fertilizer needed by Ukrainian farmers and blocking the export of grain, a key source of revenue for the country.<\/p>\n
In its Monday intelligence report, Britain\u2019s defense ministry pointed to the Russian blockade of the key Ukrainian port of Odesa, which has severely restricted grain exports. They predicted that Ukraine\u2019s agricultural exports would reach only 35% of the 2021 total this year as a result.<\/p>\n
As Moscow pushed its offensive across Ukraine\u2019s east, areas in western Russia came under attack Sunday in a revival of sporadic apparent Ukrainian strikes across the border. The governor of the Belgorod region in Western Russia said fragments of an intercepted Ukrainian missile killed four people Sunday. In the Russian city of Kursk, two Ukrainian drones were shot down, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n
In other developments:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region \u2014 where Russia is waging a fierce offensive \u2014 describe life during what has turned into a grueling war of attrition as apocalyptic.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Two Russian airplanes departed Bulgaria on Sunday with scores of Russian diplomatic staff and their families amid a mass expulsion that has sent tensions soaring between the historically close nations, a Russian diplomat said.<\/p>\n
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