Russian forces seize embattled Siversk town as Ukrainian troops withdraw

Russian forces seize embattled Siversk town as Ukrainian troops withdraw Fall of Ukrainian town comes as Russia and US propose a ‘demilitarised’, ‘free economic zone’ in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military says its forces have withdrawn from ​​the battle-scarred town of Siversk in the eastern Donetsk region after heavy fighting with Russian forces . In a statement on Telegram on Tuesday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian troops had a “significant advantage” in manpower and equipment and had exerted constant pressure on the defending Ukrainian troops by staging small-unit assaults in difficult weather conditions. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Trump says Greenland ‘essential’ for security: Could he take it by force? list 2 of 4 Why is Russia escalating attacks on Ukraine’s Odesa? list 3 of 4 Photos: Ukraine deploys low-cost drones to counter Russia’s aerial attacks list 4 of 4 Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,399 Ukraine’s decision to withdraw its forces was made to “preserve the lives of our soldiers and the combat capability of the units”, the General Staff said. Heavy losses were inflicted on Russian forces before the order to retreat was given, and Siversk remains “under the fire control of our troops”, and “enemy units are being blocked to prevent their further advance,” the General Staff added. Ukraine’s DeepState military monitoring site reported late on Tuesday that Russian forces had occupied Siversk as well as Hrabovske, a village in Ukraine’s Sumy region close to the border with Russia. Russian Lieutenant General Sergei Medvedev had told Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 11 that troops had taken Siversk, where fighting has been fierce in recent months, but Ukrainian officials denied the Russian reports at the time. Ukraine’s military said at the time that Russian troops were “taking advantage of unfavourable weather conditions” to launch attacks, but were mostly being “destroyed on the approaches”. The Kyiv Independent news site said that, despite Siversk’s modest size - it had a pre-war population of 10,000, and now, just a few hundred civilians remain - the town was key to the defence of northern Donetsk. The town had helped shield the larger Sloviansk and Kramatorsk areas, “the main bastions of Ukraine’s so-called ‘fortress belt'”, which Russia has been unable to conquer since the start of fighting, the Kyiv Independent said. Donetsk is one of three Ukrainian regions at the centre of Russia’s territorial demands, which are the stumbling blocks to reaching an agreement on a ceasefire. Ukraine’s leaders have said they will not concede their country’s territory taken during Moscow’s invasion. Russian forces had already seized an estimated 19 percent of Ukrainian territory as of early December, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, all of the Luhansk region, and more than 80 percent of Donetsk, according to the Reuters news agency. Russian forces also control about 75 percent of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, and small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Reuters. A 28-point...

Preview: ~500 words