Kyiv denies
Shoigu reports to Putin that Mariinka has been captured
December 25, 2023, 11:21 p.m
The small town of Mariinka in eastern Ukraine has been completely destroyed since the Russian attack. In a conversation with the Russian President, Defense Minister Shoigu announces the “liberation” of the ghost town. There is opposition from Ukraine.
According to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Russian army has taken the small town of Mariinka in eastern Ukraine. Mariinka, located five kilometers southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, was “completely liberated today,” Shoigu said in a televised conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, the Ukrainian army announced shortly afterwards that the town was by no means completely controlled by the Russians. “The fight for Marjinka continues,” said an army spokesman. There are still Ukrainian soldiers in the small town, which is “completely destroyed.”
The Ukrainian army had already fortified Mariinka in 2014. At that time, pro-Russian separatists controlled by Moscow took Donetsk. Russian Defense Minister Shoigu spoke to Putin about “powerful fortifications” and “underground passages” that Ukraine had built in Mariinka. The fortress was conquered through the “decisive action of our soldiers”.
Putin hopes for “further advances”
Putin called the capture a “success” because it reduced the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk. Shoigu said that the “field of action” of the Ukrainian artillery near Donetsk would be “significantly reduced.” The alleged capture of Marjinkas, located almost 30 kilometers southwest of the regional capital Donetsk, would enable Russia’s army to make further advances in the region, Putin said. The Kremlin chief, who himself ordered the brutal war of aggression against the neighboring country almost two years ago, met Shoigu on the sidelines of a visit to the Northern Sea Fleet in St. Petersburg.
Heavy fighting has been repeatedly reported in recent weeks around Marjinka, which had around 9,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian war of aggression. The British Ministry of Defense also reported in one of its daily Ukraine bulletins in mid-December that Russia had further reduced the small areas there that were still under Ukrainian control. Kremlin troops have also been trying to surround the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for several months.
There has been no talk of Ukraine’s own offensive actions for some time. After the widespread failure of the summer offensive, the Kiev troops are now preparing for defense. Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion for almost 22 months. Including the Crimean peninsula, around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory is occupied by Russian soldiers.