The Times - UK (2022-05-23)

12 2GM Monday May 23 2022 | the times

News

Russian troops in eastern Ukraine were
laying siege last night to Severodo-
netsk, the latest city to become a
flashpoint in three months of war.
The advancing forces managed to
destroy a bridge leading into the city,
the largest in Ukrainian hands in the
oblast, or district, of Luhansk, one of
two “breakaway republics” in the east
of the country that have been fought
over since 2014. The Russians threaten
to encircle Ukrainian forces defending
Severodonetsk.
Their advance had been held up
when a column of tanks was blown up
and sunk two weeks ago as it crossed a
nearby pontoon bridge. But the Rus-
sians have managed to resume their
progress. As plumes of thick smoke
filled the sky over the city, visible from
35 miles to southwest at a checkpoint
on a crossroads on the way to the city of
Bakhmut, soldiers confirmed that the
Ukrainians were retreating.
“Troops are leaving their positions as
the Russians advance,” a soldier in a
mobile battery of self-propelled guns
told The Times, speaking on condition
of anonymity. The soldier said he had
only arrived in Severodonetsk a week
earlier before having to withdraw.
Heavier Ukrainian equipment was
being brought in. Eight tanks on trans-
porters were being carried east, though
their final destination was unclear.
The Ministry of Defence in London
said that the Russians had deployed a
company of BMP-T Terminator tank

support units to Severodonetsk, a sign

of its determination to take the city. The

MoD described Severodonetsk as one

of Russia’s “immediate tactical priori-

ties”. It said Russia developed the

Terminator after identifying a need to

provide protection to battle tanks

during the Afghan and Chechen wars.

“However, with a maximum of ten

Terminators deployed they are unlikely

to have a significant impact on the cam-

paign,” the ministry added.

The Ukrainians are taking heavy

casualties. “The Russians will take this

area but we are doing everything we

can to stop it,” said Georgiy, 35, a

member of the special operations

forces. He had come from the village of

Komyshuvakha, about halfway along

the road between Bakhmut and Sever-

Severodonetsk

Kreminna Rubizhne

Slovyansk

Lyman

Bakhmut Popasna

DONETSTSK K

10 miles

Russian-held

territory

Russian

advance

Intense fighting

in past 24 hours

The Russian soldiers were enjoying a
party when they were spotted by a
Ukrainian drone high above them.
Loud Russian music and the sounds of
revelry spilling on to the street had
attracted its operators to a small club in
the Kharkiv region.
“We sent in the co-ordinates and
they spent the next day collecting
bodies,” said Olexa Gubsky, a member
of a four-man Ukrainian reconnais-
sance team flying drones behind enemy
lines.
His team conducts missions as a
team of four — two drone operators
and two armed guards — in the Khark-
iv region. The Ukrainians have already
forced the Russians back to their
borders here and are now mopping up
any remaining resistance.
The short range of the drones makes
users’ work extremely dangerous, often
requiring them to move into contested
areas under heavy fire. They must keep

Drones drop grenades on occupiers

out of sight of Russian-operated drones

conducting the same work as them.

A comrade of Gubsky’s was seriously

injured when he was hit in the chest by

shrapnel, puncturing his lung. “The

team he was with evacuated him under

heavy shelling,” Gubsky, 45, a former

teacher and political strategist, said.

“He was lucky to have survived.”

Drones have become a vital tool for

both sides. Small, sometimes commer-

cial, drones scout the land, identify

targets for artillery and allow gunners

to correct their aim after initial strikes.

“Having drones spotting the fall of

the first [shell] means you can adjust the

fall in real time. This allows the artillery

units to launch large salvoes and that’s

what’s been doing a lot of damage to

both Russian and Ukrainian forces,”

said Justin Bronk, senior research

fellow for airpower at the Royal United

Services Institute, the UK defence and

security think tank.

“While the anti-tank guided missiles,

Nlaws [next-generation light anti-tank

weapons] and Javelins have been right-

ly celebrated for... stopping the

advance of Russian columns, it is the

artillery brought down on the vehicles

behind that did most of the damage.”

Larger combat drones, such as the

Turkish Bayraktar TB2, carry out

sophisticated strikes using laser-guided

bombs.

“The TB2s were used much more

intensely in the first few weeks of the

war but they are vulnerable to the Rus-

sian air defence system and we’ve seen

quite heavy losses of them,” Bronk said.

“Ukraine is relying much more on

small commercial [drones] and pur-

pose-designed military kit sent by

allies. They are fundamental to

Ukraine’s lethality throughout most of

the conflict, particularly in Donbas.”

Gubsky said: “Our job is largely re-

connaissance but we also enjoy terror-

ising the enemy by dropping grenades

from the drones. It lets them know the

land they’re on is not theirs.”

Additional reporting by Viktoriia Sybir

Charlie Faulkner

President Zelensky and his wife have

said that humour and determination

keep their relationship strong, as they

were seen together in public only for

the second time since the invasion

began.

“Our family was torn apart, as every

other Ukrainian family,” said Olena

Zelenska , 44, in an interview with the

United News TV programme.

When the interviewer suggested that

“the war basically took your husband

away from you”, she answered with a

smile: “Nobody takes me husband away

from me, not even the war.”

She said the couple had not seen each

other for the first two and a half

months, but they would eat dinner at

the same time over the phone.

The pair sat next to each other drink-

ing tea during the interview, which

lasted 70 minutes. “I am also very

thankful for this occasion because this

interview makes us spend time

together,” she said. Zelensky, 44, added:

“A date on TV!”

Zelenska insisted that her husband,

who survived Russian assassination

attempts in the early days of the war,

had not changed. “He was a reliable

husband and a reliable man before, and

Zelensky is still my reliable

Maxim Tucker

Olena Zelenska said she did not see her

husband for two and a half months

News War in Ukraine

Ukrainians pull back as enemy

Charlie Faulkner Bakhmut
Richard Spencer Kharkiv

odonetsk. “We’ve had lots of losses

here. You can be talking to a colleague

one moment and in the next he’s gone.

Yesterday two new guys aged around 19

joined us. They were dead by the even-

ing. We’ve lost five vehicles on the high-

way to Severodonetsk and on positions.

We’re terrified just as anyone would be

but if fear stopped us from fighting what

would we do?”

The road is under constant heavy

shellfire from the Russians, who were

also able to destroy the main bridge

behind the Ukrainian lines connecting

Severodonetsk and the city of Lysy-

chansk.

In a video address to the nation Presi-

dent Zelensky described the situation

in Donbas as “really hard” but “the fact

that we are able to say this on the 87th

day of a full-scale war against Russia is

good news.”

He added: “Every day that our de-

fenders take away from these offensive

plans of Russia, disrupting them, is a

concrete contribution to the approach

of the main day. The desired day that we

are all looking forward to and fighting

for: Victory Day.”

Fighting was also continuing north-

east of Kharkiv, where the Russians

have dug in around major supply lines

despite Ukrainian hopes that after lib-

erating villages in the area they would

be able to push the invaders back to the

nearby border.

The Ukrainian military claimed that

the Russians had positioned short-

range Iskander cruise missiles in

Belgorod, on the Russian side of the

border, in a new threat to Kharkiv,

Ukraine’s second city.

In a general staff report, Russia said

that it was preparing to resume its of-

fensive toward Slovyansk, a city in the

Donetsk district that is critical to

Russia’s objective of capturing all of

eastern Ukraine.

Russian shelling on Saturday killed

seven civilians and injured ten more

elsewhere in Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylen-

ko, the regional governor said.

A monastery in the village of Bo-

horodichne was evacuated after being

hit by a Russian airstrike, the regional

police said. About 100 monks, nuns and

children had been seeking shelter in a

basement and no one was hurt, the

force said in a Facebook post.

Ukraine extended martial law for

three months until August 22. Parlia-

ment in Kyiv voted by an absolute

majority for the third extension of the

decree since the Russian invasion.

Russian forces destroyed a bridge into

the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk

Wargame Andrii,

12, and Valentyn,

6, play as young

defenders in their

village near Kyiv