Russia take control of Kreminna after intense street battle; Ukraine forces pull out

Russian troops have taken full control of the city of Kreminna located in the northeast of Chemehivskyi on the eastern flank of the Luhansk Oblast as the war entered the 55th day. All the Ukrainian soldiers were forced to pull out as Russian soldiers captured the entire city, Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai informed in a conference. “Kreminna is already under the control of the orcs [Russians], we had to withdraw because our forces kept the defence there for almost two months,” said Serhiy Gaidai. 

Street battles had begun in the town of Kreminna

The Ukrainian military had declared in a Telegram post in the morning of April 19 that Russian forces had begun street battles in the town of Kreminna, adding that they managed to break into the hundreds of miles of frontier stretching along the Ukrainian border. The city witnessed heavy artillery, bombardment, and intense gunfire overnight as troops on both sides indulged in a fierce battle, and Ukraine Army fought to the last to hold out the town.

At least seven residential buildings were on fire, including the Olympus sports complex where Ukraine’s Olympic team trains. Russians took control of the city after "levelling everything to the ground," Haidai declared, adding that Moscow’s forces have regrouped in the east in significantly huge numbers to launch a large scale military offensive. 

“Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address late Monday night.

“No matter how many soldiers are driven there, we will defend ourselves. We will fight. We will not give up anything Ukrainian,” he had asserted. 

As the second phase of the war commenced, with speculations that it could witness Syrian soldiers landing on the frontlines, Russian troops battered the cities along the 480 kilometres border taking full control of Kreminna in just a few hours. "It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy," Haidai lamented as Ukrainian soldiers withdrew leaving the city to fall to the Russians.

'No matter how many Russian troops.. we will fight': Zelenskyy 

Elsewhere, Russian soldiers rained down shellings in the area of Zaporizhzhia. "The occupiers attempted to break through our defences," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security council had said at the time forces on both sides held positions and Ukrainians were still holding out. "Fortunately, our military is fighting. They passed through only two cities — this is Kreminna and another small town. We are not giving up any of our territories,” he had said. 

“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” meanwhile Zelenskyy said as offensive in the industrial heartland of east Donbass region intensified  . “We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.” 

Smoke is seen from an apartment building after the shelling of a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine. Credit: Associated Press

An explosion in an apartment building came under fire from a Russian army tank in Mariupol, Ukraine. Credit: Associated Press

Having almost captured the strategic port city of Mariupol to the south, Russian troops have amassed to to the east for the siege of Donbass that would allow Moscow to create a straight southern corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula. Mariupol which is under attack from land, air and sea, is on the brink of surrender as Ukraine's Army stands during the final defence through Russia’s deadline to lay down weapons and get out alive—an offer Ukraine forces rejected. Russia said that despite the offer to surrender made out of “purely humane principle” Ukraine Army was still fighting in the city until 6 am Moscow time (11 p.m. ET). 

Seen through a broken window, a fire burns in an apartment building after the shelling of a residential district in Mariupol. Credit: Associated Press

If it falls, it will be the first vital and major city in Ukraine that will cut off Kyiv’s 70% maritime access to the world and will give Russian soldiers a direct link between the annexed Crimean Peninsula and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. In course of fighting between the Russian and Ukrainian forces since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the city of Mariupol located in Donetsk Oblast with a population of over 400,000 before the war, has once fallen under the control of the Russian soldiers. Mariupol is also home to the Azov Battalion, the most condemned right-wing nationalist group that Russia has been labelling as “neo Nazis” and had launched the military assaults to, particularly what Putin has repeatedly said for its “de-Nazification.”