After nearly 100 days of fighting between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian army remains concentrated in the south and east of the country where fighting is still raging, especially around the city of Severodonetsk, pounded by artillery Russian for a week.

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Russian forces “now control 70% of Severodonetsk”said Sergei Gaïdaï, governor of the Lugansk region, yesterday. “If in two or three days, the Russians take control of Severodonetsk, they will install artillery and mortars there and will bombard Lysytchansk more intensely”the neighboring town located on the other side of the Donets River, according to Serguiï Gaïdaï, who considers this locality more difficult to take because “situated on heights”.

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The situation in Severodonetsk is “very complicated”with some “fighting in the streets”, recognized the spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Oleksandre Motouzianyk. According to him, the Russian forces are trying to “to take full control of Severodonetsk, to encircle Lysychansk”and to reach the administrative border separating Lugansk and Donetsk, the two regions that make up the Donbass. “We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day, killed in action, and some 500 are injured”assured the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to the American media Newsmax in an interview published on Wednesday. “The situation in the East is really difficult”added the 44-year-old leader.

The Donetsk region is also under Russian fire. Buildings were destroyed by missiles on Tuesday in Sloviansk – some 80 km west of Severodonetsk – where three people died and six others were injured. On Wednesday, a cluster munitions strike left at least one dead and two injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk.

On the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, pro-Russian separatists claimed to have cut off one of two supply routes to the nearby town of Avdiivka, controlled by Ukrainian forces. Moscow has set itself the goal of taking control of all of Donbass.