Russia claims it captured key Ukrainian town as ground offensive gathers pace

CNN

By CNN’s Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko and Tim Lister

Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN) — Russia says its forces have captured the key town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 18 months of fierce fighting in the area.

The Ukrainian military confirmed Thursday that Russian forces had attacked locations near Chasiv Yar, which lies several miles west of Bakhmut. But it denied the town had been lost. “Chasiv Yar remains under the control of the 11th Army Corps,” the Corps said Thursday.

The Russian Defense Ministry published drone footage showing its troops in parts of the town and said more than 4,200 buildings and structures had been cleared, with about 50 Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner.

Chasiv Yar had a pre-war population of 12,000 but is now in ruins after two years of airstrikes and artillery attacks.

Russian forces began an assault on Chasiv Yar in April last year, after driving Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut. Analysts estimate that they have since suffered thousands of casualties in trying to overcome Ukrainian defenses.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source mapping site that charts the war’s front lines, showed Kyiv’s forces still present at the western edge of the town. It added that video from the Russian Defense Ministry showed its troops planting flags in two neighborhoods, but said the Russians had no control over those areas.

If confirmed, the seizure of Chasiv Yar would provide high ground for the Russians, and threaten what is known as Ukraine’s fortress belt of cities in Donetsk region, including Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka.

These cities are periodically struck by Russian missiles and glide bombs launched by aircraft. On Thursday, one person was killed and about a dozen injured by a strike that destroyed part of a five-story building in Kramatorsk, according to the local military administration.

Across Donetsk region, Russian troops have edged forward this year despite taking heavy casualties. The strategic town of Pokrovsk is surrounded on three sides and Russian units have advanced to the border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk region.

Analysts say Russian forces have adapted their tactics, moving in smaller groups on foot or on motorbikes to evade Ukrainian drone defenses.

Missile strike in Kyiv

Meanwhile, Russia launched another major missile and drone attack on the capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday. A six-year-old boy and his mother were among at least 16 people killed, according to local officials. Another child was also killed in the attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

At least 159 people were injured, city officials said. Of those wounded, 16 were children, according to the country’s emergency service.

One Russian missile made a “direct hit” on an apartment building in the western district of Sviatoshynskyi, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian capital.

One man was rescued from the rubble after being trapped for more than three hours, while relatives of others unaccounted for waited anxiously as rescue crews tried to remove debris. One woman at the scene told CNN that her mother and sister were in the building when the missile struck.

Iryna Tsymokh, 53, said she and her family had just returned from a shelter when there was another attack. “The doors were blown out. My child was screaming so loud… We all just jumped out as we were, in night clothes,” she said.

Zoya Onishenko said her apartment had been destroyed. She was still alive only because she had spent the night at her country dacha.

Zelensky said Russian forces had launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles at the capital, describing it as an insidious attack deliberately calculated to overload the air defense system.

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