Zelenskiy says Ukrainian forces undeterred; Russia hails Luhansk victory

KYIV, July 4 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday his armed forces were undeterred in their efforts to “break” Moscow’s will to pursue a nearly five-month war, while Russia’s Vladimir Putin hailed his military’s victory in the grueling battle of Luhansk.

Russia captured the city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, bringing an end to one of the biggest battles in Europe in generations and completing its conquest of Luhansk province, one of two regions it has demanded Ukraine cede to separatists in the Donbas region.

With the war entering its next phase, Ukrainian forces took up new defensive lines in the eastern part of the country.

“There have been no significant changes on the battlefield in the past 24 hours,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly video message. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine respond, push back and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day. We need to break them. It is a difficult task. It requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no alternative.”

Earlier in the day, Putin congratulated Russian forces on “victories in the Luhansk direction”. Participants in that combat should “absolutely rest and recover their military preparedness,” while units in other areas keep fighting, the Russian president said in a brief televised meeting with his defence minister.

The battle for Luhansk is the closest Moscow has come to achieving one of its stated objectives since its forces were defeated trying to capture Kyiv in March. It marks Russia’s biggest victory since it captured the southern port of Mariupol in late May.

Both sides suffered thousands of dead and wounded, while claiming they inflicted far greater losses on the other side, along a loop of the Siverskyi Donets river that winds through Luhansk and Donetsk.

Relentless Russian bombardment razed to a wasteland Lysychansk, neighbouring Sievierodonetsk and surrounding towns, many of which had heavy industrial plants that defenders used as fortified bunkers. Russia had repeatedly tried and failed to surround the Ukrainians, eventually opting to blast them out with artillery.

Military experts said the battle could be a turning point in the war, making a big impact on both sides’ ability to fight on, even though the strategic value of the ruined cities themselves is limited.

“I think it’s a tactical victory for Russia but at an enormous cost,” said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London. He compared the battle to the huge fights for meagre territorial gains that characterized World War One.

“This has taken 60 days to make very slow progress,” he said. “I think the Russians may declare some kind of victory, but the key war battle is still yet to come.”

Moscow will hope Ukraine’s retreat gives Russian forces momentum to push further west into neighbouring Donetsk province, where Ukraine still holds the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Bakhmut.

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