Battles for Toretsk: Ukraine's Forces clarify statement on occupation of part of city

She emphasized that the situation in Toretsk is complicated. Urban battles are taking place heavily and are unstable. Despite the enemy's advantage in numbers, Ukrainian defenders are managing to hold back the advance.

According to Bobovnikova, the Russian army is constantly reinforcing their troops at the front lines.

The spokesperson for the Luhansk Operational and Tactical Group also commented on the statement by Vasyl Chynchyk, head of the Toretsk city military administration, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine control 40-50% of Toretsk, while the rest of the settlement is "under occupation."

Bobovnikova emphasized the need to differentiate between "controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine" and "occupied territory."

"Even if you look at the DeepState map, you can see two colors. Red indicates areas where our troops are no longer present, and gray shows where fighting is ongoing. You can see that only the eastern part of the city is marked in red — Tsentralna Street and a few streets south of Tsentralna Street. The rest of the territory is under active combat," she explained.

Photo: Toretsk on the DeepState map (screenshot)

Bobovnikova clarified that the Russian forces are attempting to storm in small groups and are also destroying Toretsk. There are almost no intact buildings left.

"Their tactics remain unchanged. They are erasing the city with artillery. We have already seen this in other towns in Donbas. After that, they storm in small groups. In other words, they try to find weak points in our defenses with these small strikes," the spokesperson for the Luhansk Operational and Tactical Group pointed out.

Fighting for Toretsk

At the end of September, the first reports emerged indicating that Russian forces had entered the territory of Toretsk. Since then, urban battles have been ongoing there.