Controversy over fate of eastern Ukraine logistics center

Toretsk is a strategic mining city and one of Ukraine’s key logistics hubs in the east. Moscow says Kyiv has turned Toretsk into a fortified fortress with a vast network of tunnels. Russia believes that capturing Toretsk would ease the pressure of Ukrainian artillery on the Moscow-held city of Horlivka and pave the way for Ukrainian forces to flank the city of Kramatorsk.

See images of the strategic town of Toretsk that Russia claims to have just captured

Toretsk is one of Russia's spearheads, along with other logistics centers such as Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka in the northwest and Pokrovsk further west, according to Reuters.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian army said late on February 7 that Russia had launched 10 attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Toretsk region, but Ukrainian soldiers repelled all of them. Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, said Russia was intensifying its attacks with all means and forces, but Kyiv was resisting and causing catastrophic losses of enemy personnel and equipment.

Ukrainian Leopard 1A5 tanks near the front line in Donetsk on February 4.

Military experts say that controlling Toretsk could help Russia make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to supply supplies across much of the east. It would also be a springboard for Russia to advance further toward Kostyantynivka, which is linked to several major cities, according to the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Amid the tense war, US President Donald Trump said on February 7 that he might meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next week. When asked by reporters where the meeting would take place, Mr. Trump said it would be in Washington DC because he would not go to Kyiv, according to AFP. President Zelensky later said that officials from both sides were planning to meet and talk, but did not confirm that the two leaders would meet.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tranh-cai-so-phan-trung-tam-hau-can-mien-dong-ukraine-185250208232116209.htm