The battle for control of Donbass is raging in eastern Ukraine, where the noose of Russian forces is tightening around the key cities of relentlessly shelled Severodonetsk and its twin city Lyssychansk.

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The situation in Lysytchansk has "significantly worsened", the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergey Gaidai, assured on Telegram on Sunday. "A Russian shell fell on an apartment building, a girl died on the spot and four people were hospitalized," he said. The day before was "difficult" in the city according to Mr. Gaïdaï, who evokes a destroyed cinema and 22 damaged buildings.

In Severodonetsk, "the enemy carried out assault operations", according to a report by the Ukrainian army general staff published on Sunday. According to Governor Gaïdaï, the Russian assault continues in the city with street fighting.

More than three months after the start of the war launched by Moscow on February 24, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked Russian President Vladimir Putin - during a telephone interview - to start "negotiations serious direct talks" with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr. Putin assured his side that Russia remained "open to a resumption of dialogue" with Kyiv to settle the armed conflict, while peace negotiations with Ukraine have been stalled since March, according to the Kremlin.

“Constant bombings”

“Next week will be very hard,” Governor Gaïdaï admitted on Saturday, considering however that the Russian forces would “not be able to achieve everything they plan in the near future”.

“The Russians have brought a lot of means to take the city by storm, but cannot do it yet,” assured the mayor of Severodonetsk, Olexander Stryuk. "We think the city will resist," he insisted. He warned of the worsening health situation in this city of 100,000 inhabitants before the war.

The "constant bombardments" greatly complicate the supply - especially of drinking water - of the city, which has been without electricity for more than two weeks, he wrote on his Telegram account on Saturday evening. The activity of the city's "humanitarian aid center" has been suspended, he said.

In a press release published on Sunday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense assured that the Russian army destroyed “with long-range high-precision missiles an important arsenal of the Ukrainian armed forces”, in the Dnipropetrovsk region (south-east). .

These missiles have also targeted in the past 24 hours a Ukrainian air defense system near Mykolayevka, in the Donetsk region, a radar station in the Kharkiv region and five ammunition depots including near Severodonetsk, according to the same press release.

Lyssychansk and Severodonetsk, key cities in eastern Ukraine located on either side of the Siversky Donets River, are threatened with encirclement by Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists, who are seeking to establish complete control over the mining basin of the Donbass.

The leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov claimed for his part on Saturday evening on Telegram that "Severodonetsk is under our total control (...) The city has been liberated".

A little further west, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday the takeover of the key locality of Lyman - which opens the way to the major cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, in the Donbass.

The territorial defense of this "self-proclaimed" republic by the pro-Russian separatists had indicated on Friday on Telegram that they had "taken complete control" of Lyman, with the "support" of the Russian army.

The commander of the armed forces of the Central Military District of Russia, General Alexandre Lapin, praised Sunday "the courage and heroism" of the Russian soldiers who participated in the capture of Lyman, relayed the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release. .

On Sunday, the Ukrainian army indicated that the regrouping of Russian forces "is getting stronger" in this sector.

President Zelensky acknowledged that “the situation in this region of Donbass (was) very, very difficult”, with intensive artillery and missile strikes. But he felt that “if the occupiers think that Lyman and Severodonetsk will be theirs, they are mistaken. The Donbass will be Ukrainian”.

After the unsuccessful offensive on Kyiv and Kharkiv (north-east) at the start of the war, Russian forces concentrated in eastern Ukraine, with the stated objective of seizing all of Donbass, partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow.

Counter the deluge

While Ukraine, a major agricultural power, can no longer export its cereals due to the blocking of its ports, Vladimir Putin assured, during his conversation with his French and German peers, that his country was "ready" to help a "unimpeded" export of grain from Ukraine.

"Russia is ready to help find options for unhindered export of grain, including Ukrainian grain from ports on the Black Sea," according to a Kremlin statement.

For Mr. Putin, the difficulties related to food deliveries were caused by “a wrong economic and financial policy of Western countries, as well as by the anti-Russian sanctions” imposed by these countries.

He also considered "dangerous to continue to flood Ukraine with Western weapons", warning against the risks of "further destabilization", according to the Kremlin.

American media have claimed that Washington is preparing the delivery of long-range multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to Kyiv, which is desperate for them to counter the deluge of Russian fire.

But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not confirm the dispatch of the MLRS M270s - highly mobile modern vehicles with a firing range of 300 km - mentioned by the press.