(Reuters) – Russian troops have encircled the japanese Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, Ukraine’s final main stronghold within the Luhansk area, the Russian defence ministry mentioned on Sunday.
Russia has focussed on driving Ukrainian forces out of Luhansk and Donetsk areas within the Donbas, the place Moscow-backed separatists have been combating Kyiv since Russia’s first navy intervention in Ukraine in 2014.
The defence ministry mentioned its troops had captured the villages surrounding Lysychansk, encircling the realm, and have been now combating Ukrainian troops contained in the city.
“Russian troops and items of the Luhansk People’s Republic are combating inside Lysychansk, utterly defeating the encircled enemy,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement.
Calls to the Ukrainian General Staff and Defence Ministry went unanswered. The ministry didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark.
The Russian defence ministry added that it had struck navy infrastructure within the japanese Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, in addition to a base utilized by international fighters on the outskirts of Mykolaiv within the nation’s south.
(Reporting by Reuters)
