INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia said Friday its forces had seized the mining town of Toretsk in east Ukraine after months of heavy fighting, allowing Moscow to push
further into the Donbas region.Kyiv denied Russia had full control of the industrial hub.The Kremlin has been steadily grinding forward on
the battlefield for over a year, capturing dozens of mostly abandoned towns and villages despite heavy material and human losses.The capture
of Toretsk, which lies on elevated ground, would allow Moscow to further obstruct Ukrainian military supply routes, paving the way for it to
advance in the northern part of the Donetsk region, according to military analysts.It is the biggest settlement that Moscow claims to have
captured since Avdiivka in late February 2024, almost a year ago."As a result of active offensive operations..
the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Donetsk People's Republic was liberated," Moscow's Defense Ministry said, using a Russian name for the town
and the region.But a press officer for Ukraine's 28th brigade, which has been fighting for control of Toretsk, said Ukrainian forces were
holding their positions on the town's outskirts.Once a bustling coal mining center, Toretsk has been decimated by fighting which has
intensified since last summer.It had a population of about 30,000 before Russia's invasion in 2022, but by July last year the number of
residents had fallen by 90%, according to the local administration.'Do we need negotiations?'Russian military bloggers welcomed the news,
Putin."Excuse me, but do we need negotiations at this rate?" Russian military correspondent Alexander Kots said, referring to potential
ceasefire talks between Putin and new U.S
President Donald Trump.Putin has made capturing the Donbas region a "priority" since declaring it Russian territory in 2022.Toretsk and the
embattled town of Chasiv Yar less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) further north are two of the last remaining urban areas blocking Russia from
advancing further into the region, according to Russian military bloggers.Moscow's army is likely to leverage the capture of Toretsk to
to leave, despite the daily bombardment and electricity and water being cut off.The doors of houses could be seen smashed in, windows
shattered, trees charred and electricity poles bent by a blast.Drone video footage recently published by Ukrainian journalists shot over
Toretsk shows the skeletal ruins of a small town subjected to eight months of systematic Russian shelling.Smoke can be seen rising from the
snow-blanketed remains of Soviet-era buildings that once lined the streets, but which have been reduced to piles of rubble.Shortly before
Russia's announcement on Friday, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry posted an image of destroyed buildings on social media platform X."This was once
"A place where people lived, laughed, and built their future
Now, it's just ruins."It did not comment on whether the town had fallen under Russia's control.'Enemy attack'Fighting in the nearly
three-year war has shown no signs of de-escalating despite Trump's promise to end fighting within "24 hours" once in power.Russian strikes
on the Ukrainian border region of Sumy overnight killed three people who were pulled from the rubble of a two-story residential building,
prosecutors said Friday.The attack ripped a hole dividing two sections of a Soviet-era building, official images showed.On the other side of
the border, in Russia's Kursk region, local residents have grown increasingly angry with the authorities in Kursk about the fate of hundreds
of Russians trapped by a major ground assault Ukraine launched last August.Kyiv said Thursday it was ready to open a humanitarian corridor
to let Russian citizens in the border area leave, if Moscow requested one.
