Ukraine fears repeat of Mariupol horrors in Donbas

Kiev : Moscow-backed separatists pounded eastern Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region Friday (May 27, 2022), claiming the capture of a railway hub as concerns grew that besieged cities in the region would undergo the same horrors experienced by the people of Mariupol in the weeks leading up to the port’s capture. Ukrainian officials renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without it, they said, Ukrainian forces wouldn’t be able to stop Russia’s offensive. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas and where Russia-backed separatists have already controlled some territory for eight years. Authorities say 1,500 people in Sievierodonetsk have already died since the war’s start scarcely more than three months ago. Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night, Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. The city is being systematically destroyed 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged.