Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on Monday announced full liberation of Maryinka, a town located immediately to the west of Donetsk. The town has been a major stronghold for the Ukrainian military, and intense fighting left it heavily damaged.
RT’s Igor Zhdanov has filmed inside the ravaged town in the final days of the battle for it, as well as amid Moscow’s announcement of its liberation. Maryinka is nowhere near being a safe place now, with fighting still ongoing very close to the town.
No structure was left intact in the town, with RT’s drone footage showing widespread destruction across Maryinka. Kiev’s forces have driven locals away long ago, turning nearly every building into a military installation. What’s left of the town’s streets is littered with destroyed military hardware, both Ukrainian and Russian, footage shows.
The liberation of the town was announced by Shoigu during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Today, assault units with the troops grouping South fully liberated the town of Maryinka to the southwest of Donetsk,” the minister said.
The development opens new opportunities for the Russian military, as well as drives the Ukrainian forces farther from Donetsk, Putin noted. The president congratulated all the troops who had been involved in the battle for Maryinka “at different stages,” tasking Shoigu with awarding the most distinguished servicemen.
Maryinka has seen combat of varying intensity for nearly a decade already, first between Kiev’s troops and rebels of then-Ukrainian Donbass and now between the Russian and the Ukrainian militaries. The town served not only as a stronghold for the Ukrainian forces, but was among key staging points for the attack on Donetsk itself. The city has been routinely subjected to indiscriminate artillery and missile attacks on almost daily basis amid the hostilities.
The fighting over the town intensified in recent months, with the Russian forces gradually seizing key locations across the town. The advance has proven to be extremely difficult, giving a vast system of reinforced concrete bunkers and underground tunnels created by the Ukrainians inside Maryinka over the years.
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