Russia Edges Closer to Seizing Key City in Eastern Ukraine

Russia edged closer on Saturday to occupying the entirety of Luhansk, a key province in eastern Ukraine.

Aided in part by thermobaric warheads, one of the most fearsome weapons available to contemporary armies, the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine highlighted the dividend that Russia has gained by seizing a port on the Black Sea and halting its attempts to capture the country's capital, Kyiv, and second-largest city, Kharkiv.

Two senior Ukrainian officials said that Ukrainian and Russian forces were locked in heavy street fighting inside the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where Russian soldiers had advanced to within a few blocks of the administrative headquarters. By Saturday morning, the Russians had captured a bus station and a hotel in the city’s northeast and damaged 14 high-rise buildings during at least three rounds of shelling overnight, the head of Luhansk Province’s military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said. Read more

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