(PatrioticPost.com)- On Sunday, the remaining Ukrainian forces located in the city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine pulled out, giving Russia complete control of the region.
With Luhansk in Russian hands, Moscow is now expected to turn its attention to the Dunask region, which, along with Luhansk, makes up the industrial-rich Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces are now focusing their efforts on Siversk, Fedorivka, and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Currently, Russia controls about half of Donetsk.
On Monday, the British Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian forces will “now almost certainly” turn their attention to Donetsk now that Luhansk has fallen.
After failing to take Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin made capturing the Donbas region his primary objective in the war. To that end, Russian forces have unleashed fierce shelling and engaged in house-to-house combat to capture the cities in Donbas.
The Ukrainian General Staff vowed to return to Luhansk and retake the region, but said, “material and technical resources are needed.”
Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to sustain serious casualties in their ongoing invasion, averaging 200 troops killed and another 400 to 600 wounded every day.
The Kremlin is desperate for experienced fighters to replace those killed and wounded but is unable to call up its full reserves so long as Putin insists on calling the war a “special military operation.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed on Tuesday that about 36,350 Russian troops have been killed so far in the conflict and almost three times that have been wounded. The Defense Ministry also claims to have destroyed 217 jets, 187 helicopters, 1,594 tanks, 3,772 armored personal carriers, 2,634 vehicles and fuel tanks, 105 anti-aircraft batteries, 660 unmanned aerial systems, 806 pieces of artillery, 247 multiple launch rocket systems, and 65 special equipment platforms including bridging vehicles and four ballistic missile systems.
They also claim Ukrainian air defenses have shot down 144 Russian cruise missiles.
