Russia made gains in eastern Ukraine Monday, capturing a town straddling a strategically important river that runs through the front line of recent fighting.
Russia’s TASS outlet cited a Russian Interior Ministry official, Vitaly Kiselev as saying the town of Toshkivka had been “liberated”.
Kyiv acknowledged Monday that Moscow was making progress in the eastern Donbas region, after Russian-backed militias captured Toshkivka. Ukraine said the Russian push was part of a broader effort by Moscow to gain a foothold on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region of Ukraine, said the Russian push “had a degree of success”, attributing it to Russia’s heavy concentration of forces, including tank units, in the area.
A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was likely to intensify its "hostile activity" this week, as Kyiv awaits a historic decision from the European Union on its membership application, AFP reported.
"Obviously, we expect Russia to intensify hostile activity this week ... We are preparing. We are ready," he said, according to AFP.
After a bid to seize the capital of Kyiv in central Ukraine early in the war, Moscow has since focused its efforts on surrounding Ukrainian-held enclaves in the Donbas region.