Russia eliminates the bridge over the Ukrainian river, missing the escape route

June 14, 2022: -On Sunday, Russian forces blew up a bridge linking the embattled Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk to another town across the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, local officials said.

Sievierodonetsk has become the main focus of the battle for control of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas. Much of the city has been pulverized in a few bloodiest fightings since the Kremlin unleashed its invasion on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian and Russian forces were fighting street-by-street, the governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Gaidai, said on Sunday.

Russian forces have taken much of the city, but Ukrainian troops remain in control of an industrial area and chemical plant where numerous civilians are staying.

But the Russians had eliminated the bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River linking Sievierodonetsk with its twin city of Lysychansk, Gaidai added.

That leaves just one of three bridges and lessens the number of routes that could be used to evacuate civilians or for Ukrainian troops to take back the positions on the western side of the river.

In Lysychansk, Russian shelling killed one woman and destroyed four houses and a shopping center, Gaidai said.

The head of the Sievierodonetsk administration said an over a third of the city remained under the control of Ukrainian forces, and about two-thirds were in Russian hands.

“Our forces are holding the defensive line strongly,” Oleksandr Stryuk told national TV.