Russia has intensified its assault on eastern Ukraine with one military expert predicting a “critical few weeks” for the war after the fall of Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the conditions in the Donbas, which includes Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk province, as "hell" and said the region had been "completely destroyed" by Russia.
Russian troops bombarded the riverside city of Sievierodonetsk on Friday in what seemed to be the start of a major assault to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Luhansk which is one of the two provinces Russia claims are independent states.
The city, and its twin Lyshchansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskiy Donets river, form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket Russia has been trying to overrun since mid-April after failing to capture the capital Kyiv.
"The Russian army has started very intensive destruction of the town of Sievierodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled, they are shelling residential quarters, destroying house by house," Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said via his Telegram channel.
"We do not know how many people died, because it is simply impossible to go through and look at every apartment," he said.
Ukraine’s general staff said it had pushed back an offensive on Sievierodonetsk, part of what it described as major Russian operations along a stretch of the frontline.
Despite losing ground elsewhere in recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced on the Luhansk front, in what some military analysts view as a major push to achieve its scaled-down war aims of capturing territory claimed by pro-Russian rebels.
Mathieu Boulegue, an expert at London’s Chatham House think tank, said: “This will be the critical next few weeks of the conflict.
“And it depends on how effective they are at conquering Sievierodonetsk and the lands across it.”
At the same time the UK Ministry of Defence warned Russia risked more losses if it tried to move troops previously tied down in Mariupol into the battle for the Donbas too quickly without them being rested and re-equipped.