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Agencies

Russian forces have entered the outskirts of the eastern Ukraine frontline city of Toretsk, Ukraine’s military said late on Monday, less than a week after the fall of the bastion town of Vuhledar.
“The situation is unstable, fighting is taking place literally at every entrance (to the city),” Anastasiia Bobovnikova, spokesperson of the Operational Tactical Group “Luhansk” told Ukraine’s national broadcaster.
“The Russians have entered the eastern outskirts of the city.”
There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry, which said earlier on Monday that its forces inflicted damage to manpower and equipment near several settlements in the area, including near Toretsk.

Russian military bloggers, including a group of military analysts who ran the prominent Rybar Telegram channel, said Russian troops continue to advance towards the centre of the town.
The advance of Moscow’s forces – just like the capture of Vuhledar last week – has underlined Russia’s vast superiority in men and materiel as Ukraine pleads for more weapons from the Western allies that have been supporting it.
Russia, which now controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, has been advancing towards Toretsk since August, taking village by village with infantry aided by the increased use of the highly destructive guided bombs.
With Ukraine now losing more and more territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered his top brass do “everything that can be done” to minimise Moscow’s advance along the front line.
For Ukraine, Toretsk has been a frontline city for 10 years now, as it is close to Ukraine’s territories seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014. It has since become an anchor of Kyiv’s fortifications.

For Moscow, seizing the town, known until 2016 under the Soviet name of Dzerzhinsk, after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police, would bring closer President Vladimir Putin’s goal of taking the Donbas region.
The fall of the hilltop Toretsk, Ukrainian military analysts say, would let Moscow obstruct key logistical routes connecting the operational rear of Kyiv forces in the area with the combat zone, including the major Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka road.
After failing to capture the capital Kyiv when launching Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Putin focused on taking the old industrial heartland in Ukraine’s east known as Donbas, which covers the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Earlier Monday, Kyiv said that its forces had struck a large oil terminal overnight on the occupied Crimean peninsula.
“At night, a successful strike was carried out on the enemy’s offshore oil terminal in temporarily occupied Feodosia, Crimea,” the Ukrainian military said in a post on social media.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said a fire had broken out at an oil facility in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.

The defence ministry said that 12 Ukrainian attack drones had been downed over the peninsula overnight, out of a total of 21 deployed by Kyiv against Russian targets.
“The Feodosia terminal is the largest in Crimea in terms of transshipment of oil products, which were used, among other things, to meet the needs of the Russian occupation army,” the Ukrainian military said, vowing to continue such attacks.
Ukraine insists the strikes are fair retaliation for Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure that have plunged millions into darkness.
Russia targeted a ship loaded with Ukrainian grain with a ballistic missile Monday – the second in two days – killing one person and injuring five, according to the Infrastructure Ministry in Kyiv.
The Optima, which sails under the flag of Palau, was damaged in an Odesa region port shortly after it docked for loading, Infrastructure Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said in a statement without elaborating on the size of its cargo or exact location.
“This is a purposeful practice of intimidation and obstruction of the work of the Ukrainian maritime corridor,” Kuleba said.
Another bulker loaded with Ukrainian grain for export was damaged Sunday during a Russian missile barrage in the Odesa region. The Paresa, sailing under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, was struck near one of docks at the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi. The ship had almost 5,500 tonnes on board. Its crew remained unharmed.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg


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A Ukrainian serviceman fires artillery towards a Russian position near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine in September. Photo: AP

The town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. File photo: AP

A fire at an oil depot in Feodosia, Crimea. Photo: Social media via Reuters

The cargo ship Paresa, which was damaged by a Russian missile strike. Photo: Reuters

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Russian activist Ildar Dadin. File photo: AFP

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A satellite view of Vuhledar, in the Donetsk region, is seen in September amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Image: Planet Labs via Reuters

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The advance of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine has underlined Russia’s vast superiority in men and materiel


The advance of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine has underlined Russia’s vast superiority in men and materiel.


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