Russian authorities announced on Wednesday that they had taken control of two more towns in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, located in the east of the country and one of the main focuses of the offensive unleashed after the invasion of the country in February 2022.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has indicated in a statement published on its Telegram account that its troops have managed to take control of Karlovka and Prechistovka, both in this province, without kyiv having commented on the matter so far.
Russia has announced significant advances in this area of Ukraine in recent weeks, while British intelligence services confirmed over the weekend that Russian troops were managing to get closer to the city of Pokrovosk, a key strategic centre on the eastern front of the war.
Donetsk, along with Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, all partially occupied during the invasion – and Donetsk and Luhansk the centre of a conflict with the Ukrainian army since 2014 – were annexed by Russia in October 2022, a measure not recognised by the international community that followed Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.