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full screen The image shows destruction in an area in the city of Tjasiv Jar where fierce fighting is currently taking place. The photo was taken at the end of April. Photo: Ukrainian Police/AP/TT
On Monday, Russian forces took control of the village of Staromajorske in eastern Ukraine, according to the Russian military. It is held up as a major symbolic setback for Ukraine.
The village is considered to be of great symbolic importance as it is one of the few villages that Ukraine managed to retake last year during a largely unsuccessful counter-offensive.
Staromajorske is on the frontline in southern Donetsk, one of the four partially occupied regions that Moscow claims to have annexed since the fall of 2022. It is also where some of the fiercest fighting of the war now takes place.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia had taken control of 47 Ukrainian villages and towns so far this year.
That includes gains in the Kharkiv region in the northeast where Russian forces last month launched a major ground offensive. This led to thousands of Ukrainians in the border areas being forced to evacuate away from the fighting.
On the battlefield, Russia has shifted its focus to two strategic cities in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers told AFP this weekend.
– The fiercest battles take place in Pokrovsk and Tjasiv Jar. This is the region they really want. They are obsessed with it, Oleksandr, a 36-year-old soldier, told the news agency.