hello and welcome to bbc news. ukraine says it s enduring heavy russian shelling in the city of lysychansk, as the battle for the east of the country intensifies. lysychansk is the last ukrainian held city in luhansk, part of the industrial donbas region that russia is focussing its military power on. these pictures from russia s state owned domestic news agency, ria, show drone images of battles near the city. but kyiv denies russian claims that the city has been encircled. meanwhile, two more britons captured by russian forces in ukraine have been charged with being mercenaries, according to russian state media. it comes after two other british men were sentenced to death last month. joe inwood reports. andrew hill travelled to ukraine to help fight the russian invasion. dylan healy went there to help evacuate civilians. both men now face being tried as mercenaries in an unrecognised separatist court. they would not be the first to appear there. last month, aiden aslin, sha
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that the russians had full control of the city. we ve been hearing these claims, actually, from yesterday, and these claims have not been confirmed yet by the ukraine s general staff, the armed forces of ukraine, neither by the local administration and authorities. what we can say with certainty, of course, is the situation in lysychansk has been very intense for quite a while now. after the battle for severodonetsk, lysychansk was the key focus of the russian offensive, their ground forces have been affecting lysychansk nonstop, the city was under intense artillery fire, missile fire, bombardments, aerial bombardments. and like we ve always been saying, and our minister of defence confirmed it a few days ago, for ukrainians, the value of human life is top priority, so sometimes we may retreat from certain areas, just so that we will retake them in the future. and there are other claims that russia is encircling ukrainian troops, or encircling the town itself. what s your tak