Ukrainian artillery post in the Siversk area, Donetsk region, Photo: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
On Thursday, Russia claimed the capture of the city of Siversk in eastern Ukraine, one of the last strongholds of the Ukrainian army preventing the advance of Russian troops in the direction of the large regional cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, AFP, EFE and Agerpres write.
“The city of Siversk has been liberated,” Russian Chief of Staff General Valeri Gherasimov claimed in a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Siversk is about 30 kilometers east of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last two major cities remaining under Ukrainian control in Donbas, an industrial and mining region that Russia is seeking to fully conquer.
With a population of around 11,000 before the war, this town is now largely destroyed. Russian forces approached Siversk from three directions starting in September before breaking through Ukrainian defenses in November and December, according to military analysts.
The Ukrainian platform DeepState, a project that maps the situation on the front based on verified open-source images and sources inside the Ukrainian army, had reported on Monday that the city of Siversk was “gradually falling into the hands of the enemy”, and on Thursday it placed half of the city under Russian control, and the other half a “grey area” still disputed by the two armies.
What the Ukrainian forces announced
Reacting to Moscow's declaration of the city's capture, the Ukrainian military says its forces are still in control there. “In the direction of Sloviansk, the city of Siversk remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the military unit Operation of the Task Force East wrote on Facebook. “The enemy is trying to infiltrate Siversk in small groups, taking advantage of the unfavorable weather conditions, but most of these units are destroyed as soon as they approach,” this Ukrainian unit claimed.
Russia has claimed in recent weeks the capture of several key positions on the Ukrainian front, including the towns of Kupiansk and Vovceansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and the Pokrovsk logistics center in the eastern Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian army initially denied losing control of the city of Pokrovsk, but on Wednesday admitted it had “withdrawn from some positions” and claimed it had partially recaptured the western part of the city and was in control of the northern part, while the Russian army launched a mechanized assault on that front.
The latest information from the Pokrovsk front. The Ukrainian army has already received the order, what are the Russians doing under the cover of rain and fog
Russian troops are also currently trying to capture Mirnograd, a satellite town of Pokrovsk, as well as the Kostiantinivka fortress. Russia also claimed, also on Thursday, the occupation of the city of Liman, in the province of Kharkiv.
Putin stated on Thursday that he “observes a good dynamic on all axes” of the Russian army's attack in Ukraine, where, he also claims, “the liberation of the territories (…) is proceeding progressively, constantly”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia are separately negotiating with the US an American peace plan, presented more than three weeks ago, negotiations in which Russia insists, among other things, that Ukraine completely cede Donbas (a region consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces) and reduce its army. Russian troops control over 81% of Donetsk province and almost all of Luhansk province.
Trump received the new revised peace plan, which includes territorial concessions that Ukraine is willing to consider to end the war / What's next
