Russians eye Slovyansk and Kramatorsk

**moon** · 07-06-2022, 08:31 AM

Ukraine-Russia war: Civilians flee frontline city as Russians advance

Russian commentators said the fall of the last city in Luhansk had cleared the way for an advance towards towns to the west and south.

However, Ukraine's regional chief in Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, said the military continued to frustrate Russian forces on the border with Donetsk region, particularly around the main road from Lysychansk to Bakhmut.

Russian military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia newspaper that it would take the army several days to clear mines, but the next large-scale battles would be for Slovyansk and neighbouring Kramatorsk, as well as pushing Ukrainian forces out of range of the city of Donetsk.

Slovyansk was seized by Russian-backed forces when the war first erupted in 2014, but recaptured two and a half months later. As residents remembered the anniversary of the army's success on Tuesday, Russian artillery pounded the city, setting the market on fire.

A close ally of the Russian leader, he repeated President Vladimir Putin's earlier claims of "de-Nazifying" and demilitarising Ukraine, saying that those goals would be achieved despite Western military aid to Kyiv.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62061695

Slovyansk is one of the regions that objected to the US-led coup of 2014 which overthrew Ukraine's elected pro-Russian government. It was shelled for its trouble by Ukrainian Nazis.