Moscow is deploying troop reinforcements in eastern Ukraine
\nKYIV
\nRussia claimed Tuesday it has occupied large swaths of eastern Ukraine after a relentless, weekslong barrage and the recent deployment of more troops.
\nRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow\u2019s forces have control of 97% of the Luhansk region.
\nRussia has declared that fully capturing the entire Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government since 2014, is its main goal in the invasion of its neighboring country which began Feb. 24. The region recently has been bearing the brunt of the Russian onslaught.
\nIt\u2019s not clear whether Russia would try to expand its offensive elsewhere in Ukraine if it takes the Donbas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Monday that if the West provides Ukraine with long-range rockets capable of reaching Russian territory, Moscow will respond by pressing its offensive deeper into Ukraine.
\nEarly in the war, the Russian troops also took control of the entire Kherson region and a large part of the Zaporizhzhia region in the south. Russian officials and their local appointees have mulled plans for those regions to either declare their independence or be folded into Russia.
\nBut while the Kremlin\u2019s forces have superior firepower, the Ukrainians defenders \u2014 among them the country\u2019s most well-trained forces \u2014 are entrenched and have shown the capability to counterattack.
\nShoigu, the Russian defense minister, claimed that Russian forces have seized the residential quarters of Sievierodonetsk and are fighting to take control of an industrial zone on its outskirts and the nearby towns.
\nSievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has recently been the focus of the Russian offensive. Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk are the only two Donbas cities holding out against the Russian invasion, which is being helped by local pro-Kremlin forces.
\nShoigu added that the Russian troops were pressing their offensive toward the town of Popasna and noted that they have taken control of Lyman and Sviatohirsk and 15 other towns in the region.
\nPopasna is a town with a pre-war population of 20,000 located about 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) south of Sievierodonetsk.
\nShoigu said 6,489 Ukrainian troops have been taken prisoner since the start of the military action in Ukraine, including 126 over the past five days.
\nMoscow is deploying troop reinforcements in eastern Ukraine as a Russian artillery barrage aimed to grind down Ukrainian defenses, a Ukrainian official said.
\nUkrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged his people not to be downhearted about the battlefield reverses.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t let the news that we\u2019ve ceded something scare you,\u201d he said in a video address. \u201cIt is clear that tactical maneuvers are ongoing. We cede something, we take something back.\u201d
\nLuhansk governor Serhiy Haidai conceded that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk.
\n\u201cToughest street battles continue, with varying degrees of success,\u201d Haidai told The Associated Press. \u201cThe situation constantly changes, but the Ukrainians are repelling attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow is deploying troop reinforcements in eastern Ukraine KYIV Russia claimed Tuesday it has occupied large swaths of eastern Ukraine after a relentless, weekslong barrage and the recent deployment of more troops. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow\u2019s forces have control of 97% of the Luhansk region. Russia has declared that fully capturing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8254,338,8255,456],"class_list":{"0":"post-264954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-barrages","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-troop-boost","11":"tag-ukraine"},"yoast_head":"\n