Ukraine barely fending off Russian takeover of Luhansk

Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said the Kremlin set a deadline of this coming Sunday for its forces to take over the region. Moscow controls 95 percent of the Luhansk province of eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pleading for more Western weapons, claiming that now it is “a matter of life or death.”

What does the front look like right now? Intense fighting surrounds Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the only two cities that remain under Ukrainian control. Ukrainian forces only control a small portion of Severodonetsk — an area taking a brutal pounding from Russian artillery. The Ukrainian presence there amounts to only a few soldiers and about 500 civilians, all of whom are locked down in the Azot chemical plant. The war isn’t going Russia’s way entirely: Soldiers’ morale, especially on the Russian side, is abysmal, reports Britain’s defense ministry.

Dig deeper: Read Marc LiVecche’s column in WORLD Opinions about injustice, and the possibility of redemption, on the front lines.