Russia Claims Capture of Toretsk, Ukraine Denies

Russia’s Ministry of Defense claims its forces have captured the coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. However, Ukraine’s military strongly refutes this, stating that heavy fighting continues in and around the city.

Toretsk, a strategic city with a pre-war population of around 30,000, is known in Russia by its Soviet-era name, Dzerzhinsk. Russian authorities insist they now control the city, along with other areas in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

“As a result of active offensive actions, the city of Dzerzhinsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense wrote in a statement on its Telegram channel Friday.

According to the ministry, units from the 1st, 9th, and 132nd Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigades, along with volunteers from the “Veterans” formation, played key roles in the operation. Russian officials claim their forces advanced over 13 kilometers through Ukrainian defenses, capturing 11 settlements and 139 square kilometers in the Toretsk metropolitan area.

Moscow further alleges that around 26,000 Ukrainian troops were eliminated over five months of intense fighting for the city.

Despite Russia’s declaration of victory, Ukraine’s military insists that Toretsk remains contested. In a statement released Friday evening, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that its forces had successfully repelled 10 Russian attacks in the sector.

“The occupiers’ main efforts in attacks were concentrated near the city of Toretsk,” the statement read. “Ukrainian servicemen repelled all enemy attacks.”

Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsya military group, confirmed that urban areas of the city remain battlegrounds.

“The enemy is conducting active assault operations, pressing in this direction with all its forces and means,” Voloshyn told Interfax-Ukraine. “The Ukrainian Defense Forces are resisting the Russian aggressor, which is several times superior in numbers, inflicting crushing losses on it in personnel and equipment.”

He added that Russian forces were focusing their assaults on two mines near the city, which had been shut down as Moscow’s troops advanced, as well as on a school in the town center.

Toretsk is located 45 kilometers north of Donetsk and 19 kilometers from Gorlovka. The city served as a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the region. The battle for Toretsk has raged for several months, leaving significant destruction across the city.

If Russia’s claims are confirmed, Toretsk would be the largest Ukrainian city captured by Moscow since Bakhmut fell in 2023. Its fall could also pave the way for Russian forces to advance toward other critical Ukrainian strongholds, including Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka.