Russia claims to have taken another eastern Ukraine town

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed on Friday that its forces had captured the mining town of Toretsk in their latest breakthrough in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where Ukrainian defences are creaking.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately make any comments on the Russian claim.

A Ukrainian officer in a brigade on the outskirts of Toretsk cast doubt on the Russian statement.

Yevhen Alkhimov, the press officer of the 28th Brigade, told The Associated Press by phone that his unit had not been moved from its position, which he said likely would have happened if Toretsk had fallen.

Russia’s much-larger army has conducted a sustained year-long campaign along the eastern front, gradually loosening the short-handed and weary Ukrainian forces’ grip on its strongholds as the war approaches its fourth year later this month.

The losses coincide with uncertainty over whether the United States will keep providing vital military aid. President Donald Trump, who says he is making American interests his priority, has said he wants to end the war, although his plans for securing peace are unclear.

In the offensive, Russian forces crush settlements with the brute force of 3,000-pound (1,300-kilo) glide bombs, artillery, missiles and drones, then send in infantry units to attack the exposed defenders.

So far this year, Kurakhove was the first significant town to capitulate under Russia’s onslaught, after Russian forces captured Avdiivka and Vuhledar last year. Russian forces last month also took Velyka Novosilka, in the same area.

The towns were part of a belt of Ukrainian defences in the east. Russia’s other targets are the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar.

Russia seeks to take control of all parts of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk, which together make up Ukraine’s Donbas industrial region.

Russia accelerated its destruction of Ukraine’s front-line cities in 2024 to a scale previously unseen in the war, using the glide bombs and an expanding network of airstrips, according to an Associated Press analysis last year of drone footage, satellite imagery, Ukrainian documents and Russian photos.

Meanwhile, the main international forum for drumming up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine will for the first time meet under the auspices of a country other than the US as uncertainty surrounds the future of Washington’s support for arming the war-torn country.

The Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations, was brought together by then US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to co-ordinate weapons support in the months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

President Donald Trump has expressed scepticism for backing Ukraine, criticising its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and saying last month that his administration had already held “very serious” discussions with Russia about ending the conflict.

The UK is convening the 26th meeting of the contact group on Wednesday at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

The meeting is aimed at discussing “priorities for Ukraine as the international community continues to work together to support Ukraine in its fight against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion”, the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement released on Thursday.

It is the first time that a country other than the US has convened the forum, although Mr Austin’s successor, Pete Hegseth, is scheduled to take part. It was not immediately clear whether the UK convened the meeting on its own initiative or whether Washington requested it.

A senior US official said: “We appreciate the UK’s leadership in convening the 50-plus countries who participate in this forum. Ally and partner burden-sharing remains critical to helping achieve peace in Ukraine.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The US is by far the largest single foreign contributor of military aid to Ukraine, providing about 30% of Ukraine’s weaponry, as much as the 27 members of the European Union put together.

Kathleen Burk, emeritus professor of history at University College London, told The Associated Press that if the US has asked Britain to chair the meeting of Ukraine’s Western backers, it “seems to tell me that disengagement has already begun”.

The aim was to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.

In June last year, Nato defence ministers approved a permanent system to provide reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine after delays in Western deliveries of funds, arms and ammunition helped invading Russian forces to seize the initiative on the battlefield.

The Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which began work in December, had been described as a way to “Trump-proof” Nato backing for Ukraine, a reference to concern that Mr Trump might withdraw US support for Kyiv.

NSATU, which is headquartered at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany, was publicly portrayed by Nato officials as a system that would complement rather than replace the contact group.