FALCON POWERS – Russia announced on Sunday that it has taken control of the village of Svyridoniivka, about 15 kilometers from the city of Bakhmut, a key axis in eastern Ukraine that it has been seeking to capture for several months.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces “liberated the village of Svyridoniivka in the Donetsk People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine, using the Russian name for the village.
The Russian army had announced in recent days the capture of several villages in this sector, where its forces have been making rapid progress since taking Soledar at the beginning of May. This advance indicates continued pressure on the eastern front, despite the unprecedented advance of Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region since August 6th.
While the focus is on this offensive, fighting continues in the Donbas basin where the Russian army has the advantage over smaller Ukrainian forces. Bakhmut is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a major logistics hub in the Donetsk region.
The city of Bakhmut, which had a pre-conflict population of around 61,000, is located on an important road leading to the Ukrainian strongholds of Chasiv Yar and Kostyantynivka.
