Moscow, June 13 (UNI) Russian forces are very close to encircling the key city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine and cut it off completely in just a matter of days, the governor of Luhansk said, The New York reported on Monday.
Ukraine has been bringing in more and more troops and resources in a desperate effort to hold on to that city, its last holdout in Luhansk.
On the other hand capturing Sievierodonetsk would give President Vladimir Putin a key victory in his bid to control the industrial Donbas region, which includes Luhansk.
Reports said that civilians in Lysychansk, a neighboring city, have been leaving it and moving to safer places.
Reports further said that Ukrainian troops in the east are suffering heavy casualties, at the rate of 100 soldiers dying each day. Reports also said that the Ukrainian troops are also running out of ammunition.
The Ukrainian leaders have been pressing the US and other Western allies for longer-range weapons as Russia targets its artillery supplies.
Moscow has claimed that it had destroyed American and European antitank and antimissile systems in a military warehouse in western Ukraine.
