By Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) -Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, opening the way for potential further advances.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a brief statement its forces had “liberated” the town.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the claim as “disinformation”. A Ukrainian military spokesperson called it “propaganda”.
But a video posted by a Russian military unit and verified by Reuters showed a Russian paratroop banner and the national flag being raised by soldiers in the desolate ruins of the town.
Russia has been slowly grinding forward in eastern Ukraine as talks to end the 3-1/2 year war have failed to make progress towards a ceasefire, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports from next week.
Moscow’s forces are also mounting intense pressure on the city of Pokrovsk, 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Chasiv Yar.
Military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Finland-based Black Bird Group, said it was likely that battles were continuing near Chasiv Yar.
“The terrain of Chasiv Yar has favoured the defender. Forested areas, waterways, hills and a varied building stock have enabled Ukraine to conduct a defensive operation lasting over a year, in which the Russians have made minimal monthly progress,” he told Reuters.
GRADUAL ADVANCE
Kastehelmi said it was likely that the town’s fall, if confirmed, would create conditions for Russia to advance further in eastern Ukraine, but still only gradually.
“The fall of the city to the enemy is nevertheless a challenging situation for Ukraine, as it will bring the Russians closer to Kostiantynivka, which Russia is now approaching from several directions,” he said.
“The logistics in the area will also be affected, as Russians can bring drone teams even closer.”
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Ukrainian units around Chasiv Yar were “defending our positions. Every Russian attempt at advancing in Donetsk region, in Sumy, in Kharkiv is thwarted in the end.”
Quoting a report from top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, Zelenskiy said the most intensive battles were still near Pokrovsk. Ukrainian forces, he said, were repelling Russian sabotage and reconnaissance parties.
The popular Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open source materials to track the movements of Russian forces, also denied that Moscow’s forces were in control of Chasiv Yar.
The battle for Chasiv Yar began in April last year, when Russian paratroopers reached its eastern edge. Russian state media reported then that Russian soldiers had begun phoning their Ukrainian counterparts inside the town to demand they surrender or be wiped out by aerial guided bombs.
The town, now destroyed, had a pre-war population of more than 12,000 and its economy was based around a factory that produced reinforced concrete products and clay used in bricks.
It lies just west of Bakhmut, which Russia captured in 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
(Additional reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Ron Popeski and Stephen Coates)
