Assault on Sievierodonetsk taking longer than Russian forces hoped - TASS

FILE PHOTO: A man holds his baby inside Azot chemical plant's bomb shelter, where people have been hiding from from shelling since the beginning of the war, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, April 16, 2022. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

(Reuters) - Russian forces have seized control of about a third of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, but their assault was taking longer than they had hoped, according to a Moscow-backed separatist leader quoted in a TASS news agency report.

Russian shelling has reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins and Russian troops have entered the city's southeastern and northeastern fringes, but the Ukrainian defence has slowed the wider Russian campaign across the Donbas region.