Russia Continues Major Offensive in Eastern Ukraine

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Russia Continues Major Offensive¹ in Eastern Ukraine

Russia is carrying out a major offensive on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk area. The local governor said Russian troops are "pouring fire" on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were attacking Lysychansk after recently capturing the neighboring city of Sievierodonetsk. The Russian offensive aims to capture the larger Donbas area from Ukrainian government control.

Western experts say capturing the Donbas has become the new main goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. The war has now lasted five months.

"After the takeover of Sievierodonetsk, the enemy army has concentrated all its forces on capturing (our) last stronghold in the Luhansk region: Lysychansk," Haidai told The Associated Press.

Over the past week, the Russian army has captured several villages and towns southeast of Lysychansk. It is launching air strikes and artillery² fire from those towns.

The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least six civilians⁴ were killed and 31 others injured during Russian attacks on several cities in the past day. Kyiv and some cities in the south and east also came under attack.

Russian forces continued to target the southern port of Odesa. A missile attack there destroyed apartment buildings and injured six people.

In Lysychansk, at least five buildings in the city and the last road bridge were damaged over the past day, Haidai said. An important highway connecting the city to government-held territory further south could not be used because of shelling. But the highway has not been captured yet, he said.

The fighting is also making the evacuation of civilians more difficult, Haidai said. The city had a pre-war population of around 100,000, about half of whom remain.

Lysychansk is on the Siverskiy Donets River and is a large area covered with hills. This gives an advantage to Ukrainian troops, military experts say.

The Siverskiy Donets River borders Lysychansk on the north and east. The Ukrainian army continues to hold territory west of the city which it uses to supply arms and humanitarian⁵ aid. Russian forces have now moved to block Lysychansk from the south.

To the west, in the government-controlled city of Sloviansk, local officials accused Russian forces of using a cluster⁶ bomb Monday. They said it hit a civilian³ neighborhood. A cluster bomb is a kind of explosive that contains many smaller bombs and is considered very deadly.

Officials say the number of dead and injured has not yet been confirmed.

The shockwave from a big explosion Monday in Sloviansk destroyed most of the windows in the surrounding apartment buildings and nearby cars.

Monday, a Russian missile struck a crowded shopping center in Ukraine's central city of Kremenchuk, officials said. Dozens of civilians were feared killed or wounded. Officials said there were more than 1,000 civilians inside the shopping center at the time of the attack.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Group of Seven countries meeting in Germany appeared willing to provide Ukraine with air defense⁷ systems. Russia hit Kyiv with long-distance missiles on Sunday. The U.S. appeared ready to announce the purchase of a surface-to-air missile system for Ukraine.

Words in This Story

stronghold — n. a protected place where the members of a military group stay and can defend themselves against attacks

concentrate –v. to cause attention, effort or strength to be used or directed in one place

evacuate⁸ — v. to remove someone or to be removed from a dangerous place

apartment building –n. a large building with several or many separate living areas within it

advantage — n. something that helps or puts a person or group in a good position

shock wave — n. a movement of high pressure air that results from an explosion

1 offensive   

adj.令人不快的，侮辱的，攻击用的；n.进攻

参考例句：

• His mode of doing business is offensive to me.他干事情的方式叫我很不喜欢。
• If all else fails,I will take the offensive.如果其他方法不行，我将采取攻势。

2 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

3 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 cluster   

n.串，簇，群，组；vi.群集，丛生；vt.集中

参考例句：

• She held a cluster of flowers in her arms.她抱着一束鲜花。
• A cluster of tourists was surrounded in the hill.一群游客被困在了山中。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。