After capturing the former city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are advancing on the next target, the Sloviansk conurbation. “In the direction of Sloviansk, the Russians are trying to establish control over the towns of Bohorodychne, Dolyna and Masanivka,” the Ukrainian general staff said in Kyiv on Monday. The three towns are less than 20 kilometers north and northeast of Sloviansk, on the south bank of the Seversky Donets River.

According to this information, the Russian troops also crossed the Siwerskyi Donets from the east, which runs in an arc in the region. There the enemy is trying to push back the Ukrainian forces to a new line of defense between Siwersk, Soledar and Bakhmut, the situation report said. These three cities are about 30 to 40 kilometers east of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation, which is considered the headquarters of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in Donbass.

On other front sections, both in the north around the city of Kharkiv and in the south in the Black Sea regions of Zaporizhia, Cherson and Mykolaiv, there were no significant troop movements, according to Ukrainian information, despite heavy artillery combat. The information cannot be verified independently.

After weeks of fighting, Russia declared on Sunday that it had taken the city of Lysychansk. Ukraine confirmed in the evening that its troops there are withdrawing.

Lysychansk is now under Russian control, Kyiv reports. Explosions are also reported from Melitopol. All news about the war in Ukraine can be found here in the ticker.