Ukraine’s resistance in the embattled city of Sievjerodonetsk was successful for a while, but has come under pressure again. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, large parts of the town in Luhansk Oblast were recaptured. But there are still intense street fights, said the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai, on state television.

“Our defenders managed to counterattack for a while, they liberated almost half of the city. But now the situation has gotten a little worse for us.” According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian troops are continuing to attack the place massively with artillery and mortars. However, Ukrainian soldiers held positions in the city’s industrial zone, according to Gaidai.

The information cannot be independently verified. Both warring parties have repeatedly stated that they have inflicted heavy casualties on each other. Meanwhile, the death of the Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov, who was commander of a combat battalion of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, has been confirmed. First, Russian media reported about it.

Kutuzov had been “officially denazified and demilitarized,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces Strategic Communications Administration said, according to the online portal Ukrajinskaya Pravda. Kutuzov is said to have fallen while leading a Russian attack on a town near Popasna in the Luhansk region.

Since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, several Moscow generals have been killed. Official Russian sources, meanwhile, have confirmed the deaths of four generals. Ukraine had even spoken of at least seven Russian generals killed. However, two of them turned up alive after the Ukrainian death report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the cities of Lysychansk and Soledar, just a few kilometers south of the embattled city of Sievarodonetsk, on Sunday. Two recorded videos broadcast on Sunday show Zelenskyy talking to soldiers in bunker-like buildings and presenting awards. “You all deserved the win – that’s the most important thing. But not at any price,” says Zelenskyj in one of the videos.

The President’s Office in Kyiv said that during his working visit to Donbass, Zelenskyi “acquainted himself with the operational situation on the front line of defense”. “I’m proud of everyone I met, shook hands with, exchanged ideas with, supported,” Zelenskyy said in his evening speech after the visit.

According to the President, he also visited the city of Zaporizhia in south-eastern Ukraine and spoke to refugees from the badly damaged city of Mariupol. Mostly it is women and children without their husbands and fathers.

“One’s husband went to war, one was captured, one died unfortunately,” said Zelenskyy. “But we have to go on living for the children. True heroes – they are among us.”

Selenskyj was last on the front line at the end of May. The Russian head of state Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, has not yet visited his troops in the Ukraine war.

Despite warnings from Putin, Britain wants to supply longer-range missile systems to Ukraine. Specifically, these are M270 artillery pieces that can fire M31-A1 missiles up to 80 kilometers away. They are intended to be used primarily as a defensive weapon against Russian artillery in eastern Ukraine. Britain stressed that Ukraine had guaranteed not to use the weapons on Russian soil.

Putin said on Sunday that Russia would use “means of destruction” to hit objects it “has not hitherto attacked” if Ukraine received longer-range missile systems. It was initially unclear whether Putin was referring to new targets inside or outside Ukraine’s borders.

Western arms supplies aim to prolong the armed conflict for as long as possible, Putin claimed. He was alluding to US plans to supply Kyiv with multiple rocket launcher systems, among other things.