Russia has captured dozens of small towns in its attack on the Donbass region, Ukrainian officials report as heavy fighting continues across Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia had refocused its war effort from the north and center to the east in recent weeks after failing to encircle the capital, Kyiv.
On Friday, Russia announced for the first time that its goal is to take “full control” of southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbass region.
Major General Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, said Russian forces are fighting to establish a land corridor through Ukrainian territory linking Russia with Crimea, the peninsula it annexed in 2014, according to TASS, a Russian state news item.
“Since the start of the second phase of the special operation, which started literally two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army has been to gain complete control over Donbass and southern Ukraine. This will create a land corridor to Crimea,” Minnekayev told TASS.
Olena Symonenko, an adviser to the deputy head of the president’s office, said in a televised address late Thursday that 42 more settlements in the Donetsk region had come under Russian control in the past 24 hours.
However, Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces had made no major progress in the past 24 hours in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks.
Ukraine’s air and sea defenses were also able to stop the advance of Russian air and sea forces, the ministry added in a social media post.
South Ukraine: Russian forces currently have only partial control of southern Ukraine, with the Ukrainian government still in control of the key cities of Mykolayiv and Odessa, and some Ukrainian forces stationed at a steel mill in the encircled port of Mariupol.
“Despite their declared capture of Mariupol, heavy fighting continues, frustrating Russian attempts to capture the city and thus further slowing down their desired progress in Donbass,” the British ministry said.