Shawdesh Desk:

Russian forces have taken partial control of the east Ukraine city of Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian official in charge of the region said Tuesday, as Moscow’s army pushed deeper into the Donbas region.

“The situation is extremely complicated. Part of Severodonetsk is controlled by the Russians,” Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media.

He said Ukrainian forces still retain some areas within the east Ukraine industrial city and that Moscow’s troops “cannot move freely through the city”.

Gaiday also claimed “the enemy is planning an operation to clear the surrounding villages”.

After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the early stages of the war, Russia has shifted its focus to the eastern Donbas region and is attempting to consolidate areas under its control.

Severodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of around 100,000 people, is one of several important urban hubs that lie on Russia’s path to capturing the entire Lugansk region and east Ukraine’s de-facto administrative centre, Kramatorsk.