Continued offensive by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine

As Russian forces refocus their offensive in the Donbass region, the British intelligence service reported Monday that they have been consolidating and reorganizing.

In an update, the UK Ministry of Defence said Russian troops were being sent to eastern Ukraine, including mercenaries from the state-linked Wagner company.

Mercenaries from Wagner have been sighted in Donetsk, one of the contested regions in eastern Ukraine that include the Donbass, said Christo Grozev, the lead Russia investigator for investigative journalist group Bellingcat.

Russia’s defense ministry said Monday that Moscow-aligned troops of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic were “developing the offensive,” seizing a fortified area and “liberating” the city of Novobakhmutovka, claiming to have destroyed up to a company of Ukraine’s 25th Airborne Brigade in the fighting.

4 April 2022