Free Republic

Russia has lost yet another command post to a Ukrainian rocket strike after a headquarters in Donbas was blown up Thursday, officials have claimed. Video from the occupied city of Lysychansk uploaded to Telegram and taken by Chechen special forces appeared to capture the moment the rockets struck on Wednesday afternoon, sending plumes of smoke into the air. More footage then documented the aftermath, with a Russian flag shown fluttering limply over a courtyard strewn with rubble as men in military fatigues milled about. Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor, said Ukraine had struck the base - which had been set...

Ukraine began evacuating its soldiers on Wednesday from the embattled city of Severodonetsk, the strategic eastern city that Russia has been battling to take over in a bid to control the Donbas region, local officials said. Ukrainian forces retreated after suffering big losses in the city that’s now about 80% controlled by Russian forces, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Wednesday. “This is not a betrayal,” Haidai wrote in a post on Telegram. The governor said the retreat across the river to Severodonetsk’s twin city, Lysychansk, was part of their strategy