Battle rages for Ukraine city as Belarus claims to have downed Kyiv missiles

Fighting raged as Russian troops intensified their offensive in parts of the hard-fought Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Sunday.

A war crimes prosecutor inspects where 18 civilians were killed a building destoyed by a Russia strike in Sergiyvka. Picture: AFP

Fighting raged as Russian troops intensified their offensive in parts of the hard-fought Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Sunday, after Belarus announced its military had intercepted missiles fired by Kyiv’s forces.

“The Russians are entrenching themselves in a district of Lysychansk, the city is on fire,” Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said on Telegram. “They attacked the city with inexplicably brutal tactics.”

Lysychansk is the last major city in the Luhansk area of the eastern Donbas region still in Kyiv’s hands. Located across the river from neighbouring Severodonetsk, which Russian forces seized last week, its capture would a deeper push into the Donbas, which has become Moscow’s focus since failing to capture Ukraine’s capital.

Mr Haidai’s update came hours after Ukraine denied claims by Moscow-backed separatists that they had encircled Lysychansk. “The city has not been encircled and is under control of the Ukrainian army,” Ruslan Muzytchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard, said on Ukrainian television on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the separatist forces, told the TASS news agency that Lysychansk was “completely encircled”.

The intense fighting came as Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko accused Kyiv of “provoking” his country and that his army intercepted missiles fired at his country by Ukrainian forces “around three days ago”.

The claim came a week after Ukraine said missiles struck a border region from Belarus, a long-term Russian ally that supported the February 24 invasion.

But Mr Lukashenko denied any involvement, which would represent an escalation of the conflict. “As I said more than a year ago, we do not intend to fight in Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Belta on Saturday.

Missiles continue to rain down across Ukraine, killing dozens. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cited six strikes as of the evening in his daily address to the nation late on Saturday.

“Fierce fighting continues along the entire frontline in Donbas,” he added, noting as well that “enemy activity in the Kharkiv region is intensifying”.

Mr Zelensky warned against “a feeling of relaxation” in many rear cities. “The war is not over,” he said. “Unfortunately, its cruelty is only increasing in some places, and it cannot be forgotten.”

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine was “suffering heavy losses on all fronts”, listing what he said were military targets across the country hit with artillery and missiles.

In his address, Mr Zelensky also looked forward to a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction set to start on Monday in Switzerland. Leaders from dozens of countries and international organisations will gather in the city of Lugano with the aim of providing a road map for the war-ravaged country’s recovery.

Rebuilding Ukraine “requires colossal investments – billions, new technologies, best practices, new institutions and, of course, reforms,” Mr Zelensky said.

He said 10 regions of Ukraine had been affected in the war, with many towns and villages needing to be “rebuilt from scratch”.

The road map is expected to lay out reconstruction needs in terms of damaged and destroyed infrastructure, Ukraine’s devastated economy, and also environmental and social recovery needs.

The effort is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Ukraine will also face demands for broad reforms, especially in cracking down on corruption.

AFP