The Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is one of two cities in the Luhansk region not yet taken by the Russians. However, the Russians step up their attacks on the city and besiege the city. Severodonetsk is of great symbolic and strategic importance, but of much less economic importance.
The city, which had more than 100,000 inhabitants before the war, is estimated to still have between 12,000 and 13,000 citizens, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said. According to him, about 60% of the residential buildings in the city were destroyed. The city was briefly held by pro-Russian separatists in 2014, but was captured. After the capture of the city of Lugansk by the pro-Russians, many tasks of the Ukrainian regional government were transferred to Severodonetsk.
The fact that the city has fought so fiercely in recent weeks has mainly to do with the strategic and symbolic importance of the town, professor of war sciences Frans Osinga told NOS earlier. For him, the siege of Severodonetsk can be seen as an attempt to take the entire Luhansk province.
“Small Country Town”
But according to University of Groningen historian and Ukrainian expert Nicolaas Kraft van Ermel, the economic significance of the city for Ukraine is minimal. “Actually, this is a small provincial city, not a big city like Lugansk or Kharkov. “If the city falls, it will not be a major financial disaster for the country,” he said. “We are not talking about the economy” Power plant† This applies more broadly to the entire Donbass region. You have old industries, mainly like mining.”
Eastern Europe expert Hubert Smeets agrees. “Donbass’ economic importance has steadily declined over the past two decades.” Economically, according to him, there is little to gain for Russia. “Any way you look at it, it’s an industrial area from the first half of the 20th century. It takes an incredible investment to make it an economically thriving area. It is politically and strategically important, but no more than that. He compares Donbass with other poor industrial areas such as the Borinage in Belgium.
However, he adds that in Severodonetsk there is also a plant of the nitrogen fertilizer group. “Plastics are not an old-fashioned industry, but they are of great importance. I should point out that I do not know if the nitrogen plant in Severodonetsk is somehow still intact after all this bombing.”
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Source: NOS
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