Ukraine withdrawing from “dire” situation in Toretsk: Russia

Ukrainian troops have started a “partial withdrawal” from the key city of Toretsk, Russian state media reported on Sunday, as heavy street battles rage on in the eastern settlement.

The situation is “very dire” for Ukrainian forces in Toretsk,” Russian state news agency Tass reported on Sunday, citing a security source. “Currently, we are seeing a partial withdrawal of units from the city.”

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and the Russian Ministry of Defense via email for comment.

The Donetsk city of Toretsk sits north of Avdiivka, the former Ukrainian stronghold which Russia captured in February, and southwest of Bakhmut, which fell to Moscow’s forces in May 2023.

Russia has been slowly but surely advancing westward in Donetsk throughout the year, one of two regions making up the Donbas that have consistently been a focus for destructive assaults by Moscow’s forces.

Fighting has been heavy around Toretsk, as well as west of Avdiivka as Moscow plugs away with efforts to reach the strategic Ukrainian logistics and transport hub of Pokrovsk. The Kremlin has simultaneously concentrated resources west of Bakhmut in a long-running campaign to capture the town of Chasiv Yar.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Luhansk group of forces operating in the east, Major Anastasiya Bobovnikova, said that fighting was taking place at “literally every entrance” to the city.

The head of Ukraine’s military administration for Toretsk, Vasily Chynchyk, said on Friday that Russia had seized between 50 and 60 percent of the city.

“The enemy is trying and making every effort to completely capture the city in the shortest possible time, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces are giving a worthy rebuff and holding their positions as much as possible,” Chynchyk said.

Bobovnikova appeared to contradict this, saying on Friday that Russia only controlled the eastern part of Toretsk.

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said on Saturday that Russian forces control at least 38 percent of the city, adding that Moscow and Kyiv are “currently engaged in heavy urban combat within Toretsk.”

Ukraine’s military said early on Sunday that Russia had carried out 15 attacks around Toretsk in the previous 24 hours.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it had attacked Ukrainian forces along several points of the front line in Donetsk over the previous day, including southwest of Toretsk and immediately to the west of the city.

Russia is attempting to “erase the city with artillery,” deploying similar tactics the Kremlin has used against other Donetsk settlements over the course of the war, Bobovnikova said. “After that they storm in small groups.”