Ukraine war: our troops have ‘almost left’, says Sievierodonetsk mayor

Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said ‘unfortunately, they have almost left the city’, the biggest reversal for Ukraine since losing the port of Mariupol in May

News of withdrawal comes four months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion which has already killed thousands, including civilians

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Ukrainian soldiers patrolling an area of Sievierodonetsk last week. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:36pm, 25 Jun 2022

The mayor of Ukraine’s Sievierodonetsk said Ukrainian troops had “almost left” the strategic frontline city after holding out for weeks against advancing Russian forces.

Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk did not confirm whether a full withdrawal was underway. On Friday, regional authorities said Ukraine was set to pull back its troops there, marking the biggest reversal for Ukraine since losing the port of Mariupol in May.

“Unfortunately, they have almost left the city,” Stryuk said on national television.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine on Saturday, hitting military facilities in the west and the north as well as a southern city as the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War Two entered its fifth month.

Smoke and flames rise after a military strike on a compound of Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant last week. Photo: Reuters

Russian artillery and air strikes had pounded the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region on Friday, smashing into a chemical plant where hundreds of civilians were trapped, a Ukrainian official said on Saturday.

News of the withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk came four months after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border, unleashing a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and disrupted the global economy.