National Guards give reasons for their withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk

IRYNA BALACHUK – SATURDAY, 25 JUNE 2022, 09:05

Ukrainian troops were ordered to withdraw from Sievierodonetsk in order to save the defenders’ lives, allow them to consolidate their positions in safer areas and prepare for an effective counterattack.

Source: Kharyton Starskyi, press officer for the Rapid Response Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, during a 24/7 national joint newscast

Quote from Starskyi: "The point of the withdrawal is to preserve the lives of our soldiers, who are responsible for the defence of the city [of Sievierodonetsk - ed.]. The circumstances in Sievierodonetsk resemble those in Rubizhne which Russian bombs and shells practically erased from the face of the Earth. It didn’t make much sense to continue holding the city which is over 90% destroyed.

Because, first of all, it would threaten the lives of our military personnel who have no footholds there. And, second, if we can occupy the better-fortified positions in Lysychansk, which has a more strategic location from the military point of view, then in the future we will be able to mount a more effective counterattack because the Russians holding Sievierodonetsk will be in exactly the same position as we just were."

Details: According to Starskyi, the withdrawal operation took several days to complete. It became known on 24 June due to the delay with which information from the frontline reaches the rest of the country.

Starskyi also talked about Russia’s fighting methods. He said that the occupying forces first deploy ill-prepared conscripts from the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. These soldiers are virtually untrained and poorly equipped; many of them get killed. Straskyi noted that, in this manner, Russia is effectively killing off the male population of the occupied territories.

The Russians themselves, according to Starskyi, have some military training behind them. But they are doing everything "according to the rulebook" that is according to their military regulations which have not been changed since the 1940s.

Starskyi noted that this has both advantages and disadvantages as far as Ukrainian soldiers are concerned. Among the advantages, he listed the fact that the Russians’ actions are often predictable. The Ukrainian defenders are much more imaginative in this regard.

Earlier: 

• On 23 June Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, said that Ukrainian defence forces in Sievierodonetsk might retreat to better-fortified positions.
• On 24 June, Haidai said that Ukrainian Defence Forces had halted the advance of Russian troops near Borivske in Luhansk Oblast and repelled an attack on Lysychansk but Russian occupying forces were able to capture Mykolaivka. Fighting for the city of Sievierodonetsk continued.
• Later on Haidai said that Ukrainian troops defending Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast had been ordered to retreat to better-fortified positions.
• Yurii Butusov, war reporter on the frontline, said that Ukrainian troops withdrew from the industrial district of Sievierodonetsk on the night of 23-24 June and had thus completed their withdrawal from the city.

The US Ministry of Defence approved of the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Sievierodonetsk.