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Donetsk Oblast braces after Luhansk falls
Summary
With Lysychansk lost, evacuation appeals and shelling in Sloviansk marked the Battle of Donbas as it stood on 5 July 2022.
What did the fall of Luhansk Oblast mean for the civilians left in neighbouring Donetsk Oblast on 5 July 2022? The most immediate answer was a call to leave. The Governor of Donetsk Oblast urged residents to evacuate as Russian forces advanced, with around 350,000 civilians already having done so.
The front moves west
On 3 July 2022, Russian armed forces and the separatist Luhansk People's Republic captured the whole of Luhansk Oblast after seizing Lysychansk. Ukrainian forces confirmed that they had been forced to retreat. Lysychansk and its twin city Sievierodonetsk had been the two largest cities in the oblast not under Russian control by May 2022. Russian forces assaulted Sievierodonetsk in May, and fierce fighting lasted until late June, when Ukrainian forces withdrew. Russian forces then began attacking Lysychansk across the Donets River.
With Luhansk Oblast in Russian and separatist hands, attention in the Battle of Donbas turned to Donetsk Oblast, where the evacuation appeal was issued.
Sloviansk under fire
Sloviansk, in Donetsk Oblast, was among the places hit. On 3 July 2022, the city's mayor reported that heavy rocket-launcher shelling had killed six people and injured many others. On 5 July 2022, Ukraine said a Russian missile attack on the city had killed two more civilians.
Taken together, the evacuation figure and the repeated strikes on Sloviansk showed civilians in Donetsk Oblast facing growing danger as the fighting shifted toward them.
Fire on the Russian side of the border
On 3 July 2022, explosions at residential buildings in Belgorod, Russia, near the border with Ukraine, killed three people and partially destroyed fifty buildings. The incident was listed among the western Russia attacks of 2022.
A different note from Helsinki
Also on 5 July 2022, the International Mathematical Union awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki. The four recipients were Hugo Duminil-Copin of France, June Huh of the United States, James Maynard of the United Kingdom and Maryna Viazovska of Ukraine.
