Ukrainians set to withdraw from Sievierodonetsk

STORY: Ukraine signalled on Friday (June 24) its troops were withdrawing from the city of Sievierodonetsk following weeks of heavy fighting.

The move would be a significant setback in Ukraine’s struggle to defeat Russian forces.

The province’s governor Sehiy Gaidai said troops in the city had already received the order to move to new positions.

However he did not indicate when or where they were going.

Sievierodonetsk has seen some of the war’s heaviest fighting.

Street-by-street combat has raged for a month with Russia painstakingly taking more ground.

The battle is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of the Luhansk province, which along with Donetsk, makes up the Donbas region.

Sievierodonetsk's fall would leave only Lysychansk - its sister city on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River - remaining in Ukrainian hands.

And as of Friday morning, a local Ukrainian official said Hirske - a district south of Lysychansk - had been "fully occupied" by Russian forces.

Donetsk also continues to be hit by shelling.

And residents say they've had enough.

“I just want to be taken out of here now. Now I really want it. My husband is serving God knows where, and I'm here with my son and my brother-in-law. Now we have nowhere to live. And now I'm afraid.”

Since its troops failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the war, Moscow has re-focused its efforts on taking the Donbas region.

Its tactics involve ferocious bombardments of cities and towns followed by assaults by ground troops.

Analysts say the Russian forces are taking heavy casualties and face problems in leadership, supplies and morale.

Nonetheless, they are grinding down Ukrainian resistance and making gains in the east and south.