Hit by all kinds of weapons: The bloody battle for Ukrainian city of Lysychansk rages

Lysychansk is the last Ukrainian stronghold of resistance in the province of Luhansk, in the east of the country

Smoke rises over the remains of a building destroyed by a military strike as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues (REUTERS)

Russian forces are firing “all available kinds of weapons” in their bid to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province, officials said.

Ukrainian fighters have come under intense fire in recent days as they try to defend the city and keep it from falling to Russia, as neighbouring Sievierodonetsk did a week ago.

Fighting has raged around an oil refinery on the city’s edge, with both Russia and Ukraine claiming they have control of the key facility.

“Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons,” said Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai on Saturday.

Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk are the two provinces that make up the Donbas region, where Russia has focused its offensive since pulling back from northern Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv, in the spring.

Pro-Russia separatists have held portions of both provinces since 2014, and Moscow recognises all of Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign republics.

Meanwhile, fighting continued to rage elsewhere in the east of Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers ride an armoured vehicle on the main road to Lysychansk (AFP via Getty)

In Slovyansk, a major Donetsk city still under Ukrainian control, four people died when Russian forces fired cluster munitions late Friday, mayor Vadym Lyakh said on Facebook.

He said the neighbourhoods that were hit did not contain any potential military targets.

Russian forces claimed to have destroyed five Ukrainian army command posts in the Donbas and in the Mykolaiv region with high-precision weapons and also struck three storage sites in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian defence ministry was quoted on Saturday as saying.

Overnight, it was claimed by Russia that two more British men had been captured by Russian forces in the Mykolaiv region and charged with being mercenaries.

Aid worker Dylan Healy, 22, was stopped at a checkpoint earlier this year while helping a woman and children flee a battle zone in Russian-backed territory, according to an aid charity.

Andrew Hill, a military volunteer who was detained in the Mykolaiv region around the same time, was shown in camouflage gear on Russian state television.

The claim came just hours after Shaun Pinner, 48, a Briton sentenced to death by a separatist court in the Donetsk People’s Republic last month, lodged an appeal against his sentence.

Moscow also claimed its air force had struck a Ukrainian weapons and equipment base at a tractor factory in Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said three anti-ship missiles struck an apartment building in the small town of Serhiivka.

The victims of Friday’s attack also included four family members at a coastal campsite that took a hit as well, he said.

“I emphasise – this is a deliberate direct Russian terror, and not some mistake or an accidental missile strike,” Mr Zelensky said.

Smoke billows over the oil refinery outside the town of Lysychansk (AFP via Getty)

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that the Russian military is targeting fuel storage sites and military facilities, not residential areas.

Ukrainian authorities interpreted the missile attack as payback for the withdrawal of Russian troops from a nearby Black Sea island with both symbolic and strategic significance in the war that started with Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow portrayed their departure from Snake Island as a “goodwill gesture” to help unblock exports of grain.