ABC News:-
Block-by-block fighting raged Friday in two key eastern Ukrainian cities Friday, the 100th day of Russia’s war, slowly grinding them to rubble.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said fierce battles continued in Sievierodonetsk, where about 13,000 remaining residents took shelter in basements to escape relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian forces reclaimed 20% of city terrain that had been taken by Russian troops, he added later.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that there had been “some progress” in the battle for Sievierodonetsk but gave no specifics.
Haidai said Russian forces also pummeled neighboring Lysychansk. Some 20,000 residents remain there — about one-fifth of Lysychansk’s prewar population — even though Russian shelling has shattered 60% of the residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, authorities said. A civilian was killed in the shelling there on Friday, Haidai said.
Russian forces have been trying to encircle Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, the only two cities in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province not controlled by Russian forces or Moscow-backed separatists. Luhansk and Donetsk provinces make up the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that Russia is intent on capturing.
