Fierce fighting near Severodonetsk stalls Russian offensive, 115 сoal miners stuck underground due to shelling
5.56 p.m: Kramatorsk and Bakhmut districts were left without electricity due to the Russian shelling, Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
The power outage left 115 coal miners trapped underground. Water pumping stations were stopped too. Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Kostyantynivka, Toretsk and nearby villages were affected.
4.57 p.m: Russians shelled the residential district of Mykolaiv, killing at least one person and injuring two others, mayor Oleksandr Synkevych said in a Telegram post.
Three buildings were damaged and more than 300 windows were broken.
3.34 p.m: Ukrainian special operation forces destroyed an ammo depot of the occupiers in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, the regional defense forces staff has reported.
With the help of Ukrainian artillery and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Azov special operation forces have destroyed Russian military equipment hidden in an agricultural shed.
1.33 p.m: More than 220 people from the east of Ukraine are heading to Lviv in an evacuation train from Pokrovsk, state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia has reported.
Many of the evacuees are wounded.
"223 passengers from different cities of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Avdiivka, Popasna and others were sent from Pokrovsk to a safer place - to Dnipro and Lviv," Ukrzaliznytsia said.
The group includes 29 low-mobility passengers and passengers with disabilities, as well as more than 20 children, 6 cats, and one dog.
12.51 p.m: Russians shelled Sumy Oblast 20 times in the morning, Ukrainian Operative Command North has reported.
"At about 07.35 a.m, observers recorded about 20 explosions in the direction of Boyaro-Lezhachiv," the report said. No casualties have been reported.
12.10 p.m: Ukrainian forces have pushed the Russians away from the strategic Bakhmut-Lysychansk road, Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Hayday said.
According to him, the road is important because it is the only way for humanitarian aid to get to the region. Russian forces have been shelling the road, trying to seize it to cut the region. However, Ukrainian forces managed to push the enemy back from the village of Toshkivka and the Russians had to decrease the shelling of the road.
In the area of Komyshuvakha and Popasna, after the arrival of reinforcements, Ukrainians managed to throw the Russians "a couple of kilometers" back.
Morning Digest
For the second day in a row Severodonetsk, a city in Luhansk Oblast, remains the place of heaviest fighting on the Donbas war front. Yesterday Ukrainian forces managed to push Russians back to the outskirts of the city. The Institute for War Studies (IWS), a U.S. think-tank, has predicted that the battle for Severodonetsk will probably stall the offensive of the Russian army in Donbas.
The battle for Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region is likely to make it impossible to continue large-scale offensive operations by the Russians, regardless of how it ends, the IWS says.
"Russia's progress now is largely due to the fact that the occupiers have thrown all their forces and equipment from other directions to this single goal," a new analysis by the IWS published on May 28 reads.
Meanwhile, Mariupol, now fully occupied by Russians, faces epidemics this summer, said Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol.
"Outbreaks of infectious diseases, dysentery, plague, and other diseases may occur this summer. And these diseases can, unfortunately, take away thousands of our Mariupol residents," Boychenko said.
After yesterday's advance of Ukrainian troops on the southern front, the Russians were forced to secure their defense on disadvantageous positions near the settlement of Kostromka in Kherson Oblast, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army has reported.
Ukrainian forces reportedly managed to advance 9 kilometers into Russian-held territory. The Russians have been trying to strengthen their troops by deploying military reserves and old T-62 tanks to the area.
At the same time, Russian troops continue the offensive in Donbas, using missiles, artillery, aviation, and electronic warfare, the General Staff reported.
Read also: Ukraine manages to push Russians back from Severodonetsk, goes on the offensive in Kherson Oblast
In the Lyman area, the occupying army of the Russian Federation is strengthening its combat group. In the area of Bobrove, Russians suffered losses and retreated to previously occupied positions. Russian ground attack aircraft launched airstrikes in the Ustynivka area.
The occupiers are trying to improve their tactical situation in the Bakhmut area. With the support of mortar and artillery fire, offensive and assault operations were carried out in the areas of the settlements of Volodymyrivka, Vasylivka, Komyshuvakha, and Myronivka. The Russians were unsuccessful, suffered losses, and withdrew.
In the Avdiivka area, with the support of artillery, the occupiers tried to advance in the areas of the settlements of Kamyanka and Vesele, but were unsuccessful.
