Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region said Monday they had taken control of a village near the important city of Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to capture for months.
The village of Bakhmutske in the “territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic was liberated by the armed forces of the Russian Federation on Monday,” the separatist authorities said in a Telegram statement.
The AFP was unable to independently verify these allegations.
The village is located northeast of Bakhmut, a wine-producing and salt-mining town that used to have a population of 70,000 and is now an epicenter of fighting.
The village is on the outskirts of the town of Soledar, also the scene of fierce fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech on Sunday evening that the area between these two cities is “one of the bloodiest places on the front”.
In September, Moscow claimed to have annexed Donetsk and three other Ukrainian regions after referendums not recognized by Kyiv and the West.
Source: DN
