The Russian army put under his control the village of Marinka, near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Minister of Defense announced today Monday Sergei Shoigu. The capture of this community, located five kilometers southwest of Donetsk, is the most important victory for Russian forces on the eastern front since the fall of Bakhmut last May.

“The Marinka community (…) was completely liberated today,” Shoigu said in a televised conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Marinka had been turned into a fortress by the Ukrainian army since 2014, when the clashes started with the pro-Russian separatists of Donetsk who occupied the city of the same name. Now, most eyewitness accounts from the area speak of a “ghost town”.

Shoigu said that “the liberation of the community”, which before the war numbered 10,000 inhabitants, “limits the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces and gives us additional opportunities to continue our action in this direction”.

Putin welcomed the news, commenting that it would remove Ukrainian forces from Donetsk and the Russian military would have the opportunity “to widen his zone of operations.”

Russian forces have been trying for months to surround and capture another Ukrainian stronghold, the city of Abdiivka. The separatists briefly seized it in 2014 but then the Ukrainian army built fortifications around the city, which is considered a “gateway” to Donetsk. The Ukrainian General Staff of the Army reported early today that Ukrainian forces “continue to repel the enemy in the areas of Marinka and Novomikhailivka.”

There is currently no reaction from Kyiv to Shoigu’s announcements.