According to the British Ministry of Defense, the street fighting continued for several days in the city in Lugansk province in the Donbass region of Ukraine, as the war made the evacuation of civilians impossible.
In a tweet early Tuesday, the British military said, “There have been reports of the fall of Kremina and heavy fighting south of Izyum, as Russian forces attempt to advance towards Slovensk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the Associated Press reported.
While there was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian government, Russia claimed a few days ago that it had captured the city, located about 575 km southeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
“Ukrainian forces are preparing defenses in Zaporizhia in preparation for a possible Russian attack from the south,” the ministry added in its periodic bulletin on military operations in Ukraine.
It is noteworthy that the British Ministry of Defense publishes daily intelligence reports since the beginning of the war, but it did not say how it learned about the fall of Kremina.
And the British Ministry of Defense confirmed, in a circular on Monday, that the Russian forces had made slight progress in some areas since they shifted their focus to occupying the entire Donbass region.
“Without sufficient logistical support elements, Russia has not yet made significant progress,” the ministry said, according to Reuters.
British military intelligence added that Ukraine’s defense of Mariupol also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.
On the other hand, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Senegubov, told state media that 4 people were killed and 9 injured as a result of Russian shelling targeting the region on Monday.
Reuters could not yet verify this.
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