‘Cannot’ say Lysychansk under Russian control: Zelensky

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday cast doubt on Moscow’s claim that Russian troops had captured Ukraine’s strategic eastern city of Lysychansk.

"We cannot say today that Lysychansk is under (Russian) control. There is fighting on the outskirts," Zelensky told a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Zelensky warned, however, of "risks" that the Lugansk region, where Lysychansk was the last major city in Ukrainian hands, "will be completely occupied" by Moscow. Capturing Lysychansk would allow Russia to control all of Lugansk, and advance on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk further west as part of their campaign in the eastern Donbas region.

Zelensky conceded that Lysychansk represented "the most difficult and most dangerous situation" for Ukraine. "We do not have the advantage there, it’s true. It’s our weak spot but in other areas, we’re advancing," he added.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier on Sunday said Moscow’s forces had taken full control of Lugansk after conquering Lysychansk, which has been at the centre of fierce fighting for weeks.Russia said it had taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk today after capturing the final Ukrainian bastion of the city of Lysychansk, where Kyiv said it had withdrawn to save the lives of its troops.

The region's capture, a major Russian war aim, is a political victory for the Kremlin after weeks of grinding advances and shifts the battlefield focus to neighbouring Donetsk region, where Kyiv still controls swathes of territory.

Since abandoning an assault on the capital Kyiv, Russia has concentrated its military operation on the industrial Donbas heartland that comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where Moscow-backed separatist proxies have been fighting Ukraine since 2014.

Russia says it is capturing Luhansk region in order to give it to the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic whose independence it recognised on the eve of the war. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin that Luhansk had been "liberated", the defence ministry said, after Russia earlier said its forces had captured villages around Lysychansk and encircled the city.

Ukraine's military command said its forces had been forced to retreat from the city. "The continuation of the defence of the city would lead to fatal consequences. In order to preserve the lives of Ukrainian defenders, a decision was made to withdraw," it said in a statement on social media.

Ukrainian officials, who say references to "liberating" Ukrainian territory are Russian propaganda, had reported intense artillery barrages on residential areas. "Ukrainian forces likely conducted a deliberate withdrawal from Lysychansk, resulting in the Russian seizure of the city on 2 July," analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a briefing note.

They based their assessment on footage showing Russia forces walking casually in northern and eastern neighbourhoods of Lysychansk, saying it suggested few or no Ukrainian forces remained.

It said the footage included images posted on social media and geolocated to confirm where it was filmed. West of Lysychansk in Donetsk region, at least six people were killed when the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk was hit by powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers today, local officials said.