Vesti Nedeli tells about the capture of Lisichansk by Russian troops in the following terms:

“The operation to capture Lisichansk was carried out in a jewellery. Managed to save the lives of 12 thousand civilians. The allied forces crossed the Seversky Donets with lightning speed, entered the city with the tactics of small battles, which means that without serious destruction.

Another story in the same issue says about Lisichansk:

“The neo-Nazis clearly did not want to leave Lisichansk intact. Much of the destruction here is the result of an explosion.”

"Jewellery capture", we recall, took place on July 3. And on June 19, the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Sergei Gaidai , wrote on Telegram:

“Over the past day and a half, the bodies of two men who died from shelling by Russians in Lisichansk have been found. The destruction of housing in the city is increasing like an avalanche.”

Gaidai illustrated his message with the following photos:

Judge for yourself how similar these buildings, in which shells or rockets hit clearly from above, are similar to the “result of the explosion” made by the retreating “neo-Nazis”.

On June 24, Gaidai again reported :

“The shelling continued the night before last and all yesterday. Aviation was used. More than ten high-rise buildings, private houses, the building of the police department were destroyed. So far, one body has been found. The wounded woman was immediately evacuated to Kramatorsk. We are establishing the final number of victims, because yesterday it was practically impossible to move around the city safely.”

The Ukrinform agency that day published photographic evidence of new destruction:

But the shelling of the city did not begin in June. Back on April 18, the local portal of the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Svoi City, published a report from Lysichansk with the following photos:

In the report, a resident of Lisichansk talks about life under constant shelling:

“At first we lived in the RTI area in Lisichansk, there was always heavy shelling here. What in 2014, what now. And even now, while I am talking to you, they are shooting there, the five-story building is on fire. They destroyed the church, fired at the children's hospital. <…>

One night the Russians began shelling our street in the private sector. We were in the basement. The walls were cowardly, the earth was crumbling. Creepy sounds of explosions nearby. We thought we would go out and our house was gone. But it turned only the summer kitchen, several funnels in the yard. I went out into the street - there are a lot of destroyed houses. I do not understand why they chose this particular street - there is nothing here but residential buildings. People say that we need to leave – there will be no stone left unturned.”

Directly on July 3, there really were no new large destructions, as Russian troops entered the city already abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the BBC, the decision to withdraw to a new line of defense was made when the threat of encirclement became real.