In Luhansk and Donetsk regions, fighting continues along front lines that stretch for several hundred kilometers. The Ukrainians also report continued fighting in areas in the east, where Russian forces are trying to break through.
The heaviest combat appears to be in two locations: around industrial towns in Luhansk, and in rural areas north of the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Monday that the “enemy focused its main efforts on the Donetsk direction… and is preparing an offensive by forces concentrated in the area of Izium.”
The Russians have reinforced their presence around Izium in an effort to push further south, and heavy fighting was reported in the area over the weekend.
The General Staff said that in three frontline areas — Lyman, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv —Russian forces continued to advance and fighting continued. But it also claimed that in another area, Avdiivka, Russian units had retreated.
Russian forces continue to bombard Severodonetsk, according to local officials.
Serhii Hayday, head of the military administration in Luhansk, said that two people in the city had been killed in the most recent shelling. He said there had been heavy bombardment of several towns and villages in the area but Russian forces had been forced to retreat near the town of Borivske to the south of Severodonetsk.
Speaking on Ukrainian television Monday, Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said the key area in the Russians’ offensive now was around Severodonetsk.
“The Russians are concentrating their forces there. This is the only place where they can have some progress. It will be the hottest area in the coming days,” he said. “I hope we will be able to repel them.”
Denysenko added that around Izium “Russian attacks are choking” and that further north “the Russians are retreating, blowing up bridges. Our forces are counter-attacking.”
CNN has geolocated satellite imagery showing that three bridges west of Russian supply lines to Izium have been destroyed in the past week.
Mariupol: In the south, the General Staff said Russia continues massive artillery and air strikes to block and destroy units trapped at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
Several hundred wounded soldiers are trapped at the plant.
In his daily video message late Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the government continues “very complicated and delicate negotiations to save our people from Mariupol, from Azovstal.”
