POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Local officials say Russian and Ukrainian troops are engaging in close-quarter combat in an eastern Ukraine city. They reported Russian forces “storming” the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk on Sunday.
Sievierodonetsk has emerged as an epicenter of Russia’s quest to conquer Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region. Russia also stepped up its efforts to take nearby Lysychansk, where Ukrainian officials reported constant shelling. The two cities are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk province, which together with neighboring Donetsk makes up the Donbas region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare frontline visit to soldiers in the city of Kharkiv as he sought to assert the strength of Ukraine’s position there.
