Russia says troops are 4 km from Sloviansk suburbs

Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov said Russian forces were four kilometres from the eastern suburbs of Sloviansk during a visit to Moscow's troops on the Ukraine front, Russia's defence ministry said Thursday.

The ministry released a video of Gerasimov praising Russian military “successes” and saying the offensive was moving at an “unabated pace” on all fronts. AFP could not independently verify his battlefield claim.

The ministry said Gerasimov vowed to seize more towns and villages in eastern Ukraine. Russia has continued to demand that Ukraine cede the rest of the east, and the Kremlin has tasked troops with taking control of the whole Donetsk region.

Sloviansk and nearby Kramatorsk are the last major hubs under Ukrainian control in Donetsk region. They form part of a chain of fortified defence lines built by Kyiv since 2014.

Sloviansk was held for about three months by pro-Russian separatist forces in 2014 before Kyiv retook it. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Andriy Biletskyi and Denys Prokopenko to lead the region's defence.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has crossed the four-and-a-half-year mark, while US-brokered peace talks are frozen.