Local reports stated Monday, the Russian military blew up a bridge connecting the besieged Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk to a city on the other side of the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route.
Sievierodonetsk has been the epicenter of the war for control over the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region. Since the Kremlin's assault began on February 24, portions of the city have been decimated by some of the worst warfare.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that the occupiers' primary tactical objective has not changed: "they are pressing in Sievierodonetsk, where fierce fighting is taking place - literally for every meter."
He also mentioned that Russia was attempting to deploy reserve forces to the Donbas.
According to Zelenskiy, the image of a 12-year-old boy injured by a Russian strike is now the enduring global image of Russia. "The world's image of Russia will be highlighted by these facts," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's comparison of Moscow's military endeavor to Peter the Great's 18th-century conquest of Swedish-held country was a reference to this, he said: "Children killed and injured in Russian attacks, not Peter the Great or Lev Tolstoy."
On Sunday, Ukrainian and Russian military were still fighting street by street in Sievierodonetsk, according to Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the province of Luhansk.
The majority of the city has been taken over by Russian forces, but Ukrainian military still control an industrial zone and the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have sought refuge. On the Azot plant site in Sievierodonetsk, there are approximately 500 civilians, including 40 children. As Gaidai put it, "On occasion, the military is able to evacuate one person."
Gaidai stated that the Russians had destroyed the bridge that connected Sievierodonetsk to its twin city, Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donets River.
Additional bombings could cause the bridge to collapse and cut off the entire city. Gaidai expressed fear that it would be hard to leave Sievierodonetsk by car in the absence of a cease-fire agreement and agreed-upon evacuation routes.
Moscow has moved its attention to the Donbas, where pro-Russian insurgents have controlled territory since 2014, after being forced to scale back its initial aims following the invasion.
Sievierodonetsk's fall would bring Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" in the Luhansk region one step closer to its stated objective.
