On Friday, Russia's Defence Ministry announced their forces had seized control of the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. However, Ukraine's military refuted this claim, stating that the city had not been captured and highlighting heavy fighting in and around Toretsk.
Independent verification of the conflict details from both sides by Reuters was not possible.
Russia refers to the city by its Soviet-era name, Dzerzhinsk, and asserts that Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Toretsk is situated, now belongs to Russia—a notion dismissed by Kyiv as absurd.
Following the failure to advance on Kyiv after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces are now focusing on securing Donbas, comprising Donetsk and Luhansk in the east.
Toretsk, along with logistical centers like Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka, and Pokrovsk, has been a key target in the advancing operation.
Reports from Ukraine's General Staff state that Russian forces launched multiple attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Toretsk sector.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson for the Khortytsya (eastern) group of forces, Nazar Voloshyn, mentioned intense fighting in Toretsk, where Ukrainian forces successfully defended against Russian assaults, inflicting significant losses on the enemy.
The city's mines, closed as Russian forces approached, and a school in the town center were reportedly key targets of the attacks.
Ukrainian military analysts believe that capturing Toretsk, due to its elevation, could pose logistical challenges for Ukrainian forces in the region and potentially facilitate Russian advancement towards Kostiantynivka.
The majority of Toretsk's civilian population has evacuated, and much of the city's infrastructure lies in ruins.