Moscow first captured a portion of Severodonetsk more than a week ago, and has moved forces in other regions of Ukraine into defensive postures to concentrate all available forces on taking the city, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Last weekend, Ukrainian officials spoke of potentially pulling out entirely of Severodonetsk.
The city is a Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk and would offer Russia a symbolically important victory. Ukraine designated Severodonetsk as the administrative capital of the region after separatists seized the city of Luhansk in 2014.
But after a week of bloody, block-by-block urban fighting, Ukrainian fighters have reclaimed parts of Severodonetsk, according to Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region that is part of Donbas, and now control half the city.
“The occupiers lost a huge number of personnel,” Mr. Haidai wrote on Telegram Sunday.
The British ministry of defense said that the Ukrainian counterattack is “likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower.”
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