(Moscow) Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the Russian army had “completely liberated” the residential areas of Sievierodonetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine and the current epicenter of fighting in the region.
Posted at 7:13 a.m.
“The residential areas of Sievierodonetsk have been completely liberated,” he said during a television briefing, adding that “the takeover of its industrial area and neighboring settlements continues.”
According to the Russian Defense Minister, whose appearances have been rare since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Moscow now controls 97% of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, to which Sievierodonetsk belongs.
“The cities of Lyman and Svyatogirsk, as well as 15 other localities, have been liberated,” he also added.
If confirmed, the conquest of these two cities would be significant, as it would remove a final obstacle to the symbolic city of Sloviansk and to that of Kramatorsk, the capital of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control.
Furthermore, according to Mr. Shoigu, “126 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in five days” to the Russian forces and 6,489 in total have been taken prisoner since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
These figures were not independently verifiable.