With the withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the fighting shifts to neighboring Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk region still under Ukrainian control.
The seizure of three strategic villages confronts Ukrainian commanders with a grim choice: fight on and risk encirclement or retreat and lose the last major centers in the region.
Bridges are critical in the battle for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, separated by a river. Shelling has mostly destroyed them, but that didn’t stop one woman from walking across to buy some basics.
The area around Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk is about three-quarters encircled by Russians, leaving only a slender gap there for Ukrainian troops to maneuver.