(Reuters) – The top Moscow-installed official in the occupied parts of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine said early on Tuesday that more than 50% of the region’s territory is under Russian control.
The so-called Donetsk People’s Republic is one of the four regions in Ukraine which Moscow proclaimed as its own in September in what Ukraine and its allies called a “sham,” coercive referendum.
“A little more than 50% of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated,” Denis Pushilin, Russian-installed administrator of the Moscow-controlled parts of Donetsk, told RIA.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
As fierce fighting has been taking place in the region in recent weeks, the exact parts of Donetsk under Russian and Ukrainian control are unclear.
Russia has claimed to be gradually advancing its positions in the region, with its defence ministry saying on Monday that as a result of its offensive there, 30 Ukrainian military personnel were killed the day before.
Russia’s sustained shelling of the frontline in Donetsk has destroyed completely the city of Bakhmut and heavily damaged the city of Avdiivka, which lies in the region’s centre, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Monday that Russia kept concentrating its efforts to advance and capture both Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
“Near Bakhmut, the occupiers rained mortar and artillery fire on nearly 20 settlements,” the top command said in its daily evening battlefield update.
Nine settlements came under shelling near Avdiivka, the military said.
Britain’s defence ministry said on Monday that Russia was still likely to be planning to make deeper advances within Donetsk, but cast doubts on its ability.
“It is highly unlikely that the Russian military is currently able to generate an effective striking force capable of retaking these areas,” the ministry said.
“Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months.”
(Reporting in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
