Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine, with heavy clashes with the Ukrainian army taking place in the center of Severodonetsk. Together with Lysychansk, from which it is only separated by a river, Severodonetsk is one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in the Donbas mining region, which Russia claims is at the moment the only target of its so-called „special military operation”. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky admitted the Ukrainian army is in difficulty in this region. The Ukrainian forces say, however, that they have regained ground in the south, especially in the Kherson area, near Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian troops have withdrawn from the village of Mykolaivka, in the Kherson region. The city of Kherson was occupied by the Russian troops as early as the beginning of March, soon after the launch of the Russian invasion on February 24, and commentators say retaking the city would have a symbolic, as well as a strategic, importance.
