Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken place in Severodonetsk, where street-by-street battles have been going on for a month, with Russia slowly and painstakingly taking more ground.

“Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense,” governor Sergiy Gaiday said on television.

He said troops in the city “have already received the order to move to new positions,” but did not indicate whether they had already done so or where exactly they were going.

The battle for the city is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of the Luhansk region, with only the city of Lysychansk left in Ukrainian hands if Severodonetsk were to fall.

Luhansk region is one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, an area which Russia and its separatist allies in east Ukraine aim to fully capture as one of their war aims.

“In many respects, the fate of the Donbas is being decided there,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of Severodonetsk recently.