Russia Presses Battle For Eastern Ukraine, Claims Key City Surrounded

Kramatorsk, Ukraine, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th May, 2022 ) :Russian forces engaged in an all-out battle in eastern Ukraine have captured the strategic town of Lyman and surrounded a key industrial centre, Moscow has claimed.

But a Ukrainian official has denied that the city of Severodonetsk -- the focus of weeks of fierce fighting -- has been encircled, saying government troops had repelled Russian forces from its outskirts.

As the battle for Ukraine's industrial heartland raged on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for "direct serious negotiations" between Russian leader Vladmir Putin and his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

The EU leaders also "insisted on an immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops" in an 80-minute phone call with the Russian leader, the German chancellor's office said.

Since failing in its bid to capture the capital Kyiv in the war's early stages, Russia has shifted its focus to the eastern Donbas region as it attempts to consolidate areas under its control.

"The situation is very difficult, especially in those areas in the Donbas and Kharkiv regions, where the Russian army is trying to squeeze at least some result for itself," Ukrainian President Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.

Earlier Saturday, Russia's defence ministry said the "town of Krasny Liman has been entirely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists", using Moscow's name for Lyman.

Lyman lies on the road to Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk, which a police official in Lugansk province cited by Russian state media said was "now surrounded".

But regional governor Sergiy Gaiday told Ukrainian television "Severodonetsk has not been cut off... there is still the possibility to deliver humanitarian aid."His remarks came as Russia, in another exercise in military muscle-flexing, said it had successfully tested hypersonic missiles in the Arctic.