Russian forces fight to capture Ukraine’s eastern bulwark

By FRANCESCA EBEL
Associated Press

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops are fighting to encircle the last bulwark of Ukraine’s resistance in an eastern province as funerals are to be held for those who were killed by a Russian strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine earlier this week. Moscow’s push to take control of the entire Donbas region from Ukraine is focused on Lysychansk, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the Luhansk province. Russian troops and their separatist allies control 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two provinces that make up the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas. The Ukrainian General Staff said Thursday that the Russian troops were shelling Lysychansk and clashing with Ukrainian defenders around an oil refinery on the edge of the city.