Ukraine war: Russia sets sights on Donetsk region after claiming victory in Luhansk
Ukrainian forces are today concentrating on defending Donetsk province in the eastern Donbas after Russia claimed to have taken control of neighbouring Luhansk.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces were now focusing their efforts on pushing toward the line of Siversk, Fedorivka and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, about half of which is controlled by Russia.
The Russian army has also intensified its shelling of the key Ukrainian strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, deeper in Donetsk.
On Monday, President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Luhansk province and ordered his forces to continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine, as the five-month long war entered a new phase.
It came a day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city of Lysychansk, their last remaining bulwark of resistance in the province.
The battle for the Donbas, the industrialised eastern region of Ukraine, has become the site of the biggest battle in Europe in generations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Monday night that repelling the invader would take time and be hugely challenging.
"We need to break them," he said in his latest evening address. "It is a difficult mission, which requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no other choice."
Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, acknowledged his entire province was now effectively in Russian hands. "We need to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk ... It hurts a lot, but it's not losing the war," he told Reuters.
He added that Ukrainian forces that retreated from Lysychansk were now holding the line between Bakhmut and Sloviansk, preparing to fend off a further Russian advance.
The UK defence ministry's intelligence assessment on Tuesday said Russia's
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