Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov visited troops in Ukraine in Moscow and said Kremlin forces had captured twelve eastern villages in February, the defense ministry said on Sunday.
Gerasimov visited the troops days before US-brokered talks in Geneva aimed at ending nearly four years of war, and just before the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
– In two weeks of February, despite the difficult winter conditions, the combined forces and military units of the joint working group liberated 12 settlements – said Gerasimov.
The AFP could not independently confirm these claims.
The pace of the Russian advance picked up in the fall, but Russia has still not achieved its goal of capturing the Donetsk region in four years of war. Moscow is demanding that Kiev withdraw its forces from the Donetsk region as a condition of any deal to end the conflict – which Kiev has refused.
Gerasimov said Russian troops were moving toward Slovyansk, an industrial center that was briefly seized by pro-Russian separatists in 2014 and has since been frequently targeted by Russian attacks. Moscow’s forces are located about 15 kilometers from the city.
Moscow claims Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions as its territory, but has also made advances in other Ukrainian areas.
Gerasimov stated that Russia is “expanding the security zone” in the border areas of the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions, where it controls certain enclaves of the territory.
The head of the army added that he would talk to the officers about “further actions in the direction of the Dnieper”. Russian forces crossed into the Dnipro region last summer in its western push, but the Kremlin has never officially declared a territorial claim to the area.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow intends to take the entire Donetsk region by force if diplomacy fails.
(Vijesti.ba)
