Ukraine tells troops to retreat from battered Severodonetsk

Regional governor says city has been reduced to rubble by Russian bombardment

Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP

A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, third left, is shown apartment buildings damaged by Russian shelling during his visit to Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters

A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA

A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP

Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP

Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP

An image taken from a video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office purports to show the moment a missile struck the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. AP

People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP

Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA

A woman cries after the body of her husband, who was killed in the yard of an apartment building during shelling, was loaded into an ambulance in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP

Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA

Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters

A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters

People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA

Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA

A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters

A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA

Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA

A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters

Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters

A giant Ukrainian flag is held up during the benefit concert 'Embrace Ukraine' on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The free event will raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine and the purchase of mobile X-ray equipment that the country needs. EPA

A fire from a gas processing plant continues to burn behind a field of wheat after it was hit by shelling a few days earlier in Andriivka, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters

An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters

A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP

A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP

An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA

Ukrainian forces have been told to retreat from the encircled city of Severodonetsk after some of the heaviest fighting of the war with Russia.

Regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said it made no sense for Ukrainian troops to "remain in positions smashed to pieces over many months, just for the sake of staying there".

The fall of the eastern city would give Russia control over most of the Luhansk region, with only its sister city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of a river remaining in Ukrainian hands.

Capturing Severodonetsk has become a key goal of Russian generals after they refocused their offensive on the east following setbacks around Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.

The industrial hub has seen weeks of street-by-street fighting as the outgunned Ukrainians put up a fierce defence.

But the city has been "nearly turned to rubble" by sustained Russian bombardment, the regional governor said;.

“We will have to pull back our guys,” he said. “It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, because the number of casualties in poorly fortified areas will grow every day.”

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

The Ukrainian forces had already been pushed back from much of the city, leaving them in control of only industrial areas.

Russia said on Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and other fighters totalling about 2,000 soldiers had been “fully blocked” near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk.

Mr Gaidai said the Russians were now advancing on Lysychansk, which has been facing increasingly heavy Russian bombardment.

Journalists driving out of the city on Thursday had to jump out of cars and lie on the ground as Russian forces shelled its main supply road, AFP reported.

They saw dark smoke rising over the road ahead, and heard artillery fire and saw flashes of light, while the road was strewn with trees felled by shelling.

Elsewhere, the pro-Russian side reported the death of an official in the Kremlin-friendly administration in Kherson, a southern city captured by Russian troops early in the invasion.

The government said Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a “terror attack.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility.