Ukraine’s military command confirmed on Sunday evening that its troops had been forced to pull back from the city of Lysychansk, the last bulwark of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, one of the two regions that make up the country’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas.
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told Vladimir Putin on Sunday that its forces had established full control over Lysychansk and several nearby settlements, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Since abandoning an assault on the capital, Kyiv, Russia has concentrated its military operation on Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatist proxies have been fighting Ukraine since 2014. The Russians control about half of Donetsk.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, said he expected the Donetsk cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut to come under heavy attack as Russia attempts to take full control of Donbas.
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