Russians Press Ahead In Donbas Pocket As Ukrainian Forces On Retreat, Officials Say

Russian forces reportedly made further gains in the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the eastern Donbas region, as Kyiv admitted that it may have to abandon Syevyerodonetsk, one of the two main cities still under its control but which Russians appear close to surrounding.

Britain meanwhile said Moscow was in acute need of a victory in the Donbas region as a political justification for its unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the current situation in the region "very difficult."

"Russian forces have concentrated their efforts in the Donbas, using maximum artillery fire and missile strikes as Ukrainian forces protect our land in the way that our current defense resources allow," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Russian troops seeking to regain momentum in the three-month-long war have been pressing a rapid advance in the Luhansk region with a focus on the cities of Syevyerodonetsk and Lysychansk.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on May 28 that its forces together with Moscow-backed separatist fighters had taken Lyman, a strategic railway hub west of Syevyerodonetsk.

Earlier, the British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on May 28 that Russian forces had likely captured most of Lyman in what appears as a preliminary operation for the next stage of Russia’s offensive.

In Syevyerodonetsk, the relentless and indiscriminate Russian artillery fire almost completely destroyed the city and killed hundreds of civilians, officials said.

Serhiy Hayday, the governor of Luhansk, said on May 28 that he estimates there are some 10,000 Russian troops in the region and that Russians are already in parts of Syevyerodonetsk.

"It is possible that in order not to be surrounded, they (Ukrainians) will have to leave," Hayday said the previous night.

Syevyerodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said at least 1,500 people have been killed in his city since the start of Russia's invasion in late February. About 12,000 to 13,000 remain in the city -- down from a prewar population of about 100,000, he said.

The British intelligence report estimated Russia is likely to prioritize forcing a crossing of the Siverskiy Donets River that separates Syevyerodonetsk from its twin city, Lysychansk.

Moscow has made seizing the whole eastern Donbas region a key objective of the invasion after being pushed back from Kyiv.

In its bulletin, Britain assessed that "if Russia did succeed in taking over these areas, it would highly likely be seen by the Kremlin as a substantive political achievement and be portrayed to the Russian people as justifying the invasion."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on May 27 that Ukraine needed long-range multiple-launch rocket systems to resist the Russian onslaught.

"I'm afraid that Putin, at great cost to himself and to the Russian military, is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas," he told Bloomberg. "He's continuing to make gradual, slow, but I'm afraid palpable, progress and therefore it is absolutely vital that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily."

Ukraine is pleading for a long-range weapons system to halt the Russian advance, but Washington has so far not offered one.

On the diplomatic front, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a possible prisoner swap and blocked shipments of Ukrainian grain during a phone call on May 27.

Nehammer, who spoke to reporters after the 45-minute call, said Putin told him that Moscow is ready to discuss a prisoner swap with Ukraine but the question is complex. The Austrian leader said his impression during the call was that Putin wants to create facts on the ground that he can take into negotiations.

Zelenskiy said earlier that he must hold talks with Putin in order to safeguard Ukraine's sovereignty and existence.

Zelenskiy also accused Russia, which has said it would allow Ukraine to resume its grain exports by sea if the West lifts some sanctions imposed on it for starting the war, of weaponizing the global food supply crisis.

The last known face-to-face talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were held on March 29. Negotiations continued online for a while, but both sides now say they have stopped.

According to a Kremlin statement, Putin informed Nehammer about actions that Russia is taking to secure safe passage for vessels in the Azov and Black seas.

Putin told Nehammer that attempts to blame Russia for difficulties shipping grain worldwide were unfounded and said Western sanctions were responsible instead, according to the Kremlin.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, CNN, and BBC