The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports that fighting in Severodoenketsk, where Russian troops are moving forward, continues,.

“The enemy has entered the center of Severodonetsk and is trying to take positions. The situation is very difficult,"

“I don’t want to evaluate or give any percentage of what we control and do not control,” CNN quotes Motuzyanyk. “We know the goals of the enemy and we do everything to prevent them from achieving them”.

One officer who participated in the defense of Severodonetsk spoke more optimistically about the situation..

“We are maneuvering, trying to destroy the occupier as much as possible.. The night went more or less well.. Our units took prisoners,” said the commander of the “Svoboda” battalion, captain of the National Guard Piotr Kuzyk..

Kuzyk said that his unit did not plan to retreat from Severodonetsk, but tried to push the Russian military as far away from the city as possible..

Russian forces " They have an advantage in artillery, in tanks in this direction, so they use it, ”he added..

The Russian army uses infantry only to determine the positions of the Ukrainian military. “Then artillery works for hours, tanks and aircraft are used,” he said.. “They are fighting like a Russian military machine - they are trying to grind our positions, as they fought in Syria, Rubizhne.

“They completely destroyed the city of Rubizhne. They are trying to do the same with Severodonetsk, but our counter-artillery is already working here, although at a much slower pace than we would like,” he continued..

The Ministry of Defense said that elsewhere on the front line, Russian attacks around Liman, supported by attack helicopters, were repulsed.. According to Motuzyanyk, Ukrainian units also resisted Russian attempts to force them out of Belgorovka..

However, he admitted that on the fronts south of the city of Bakhmut, “as a result of the assaults near Vozdvizhenka, the enemy had partial success, which allowed him to capture the southwestern part of this settlement”.

Over the past week, Russian forces have made some progress in rural areas of the Donetsk region and are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces defending the border of the region in three directions - in the north, east and south..