Having captured the former city of Lisichansk in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are advancing on the next target, the Sloviansk Convergence. “In the direction of Sloviansk, the Russians are trying to establish control over the cities of Bohorodichne, Dolina and Masanivka,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in Kyiv on Monday. There are three cities less than 20 kilometers to the north and northeast of Sloviask on the southern bank of the Seversky Donets River.

According to this information, Russian troops also crossed the Siversky Donets from the east, which runs in an arc in this area. The situation report said that there the enemy is trying to push the Ukrainian army back to a new line of defense between Siversk, Soledar and Bakhmut. These three cities are approximately 30 to 40 kilometers east of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk convergence, which is considered the headquarters of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in Donbass.

On the other front, there were no significant military movements, according to Ukrainian information, despite heavy artillery fighting, to the north of the city of Kharkiv and to the south in the Black Sea regions of Zaporizhia, Cherson and Mykolaiv. The information cannot be independently verified. After weeks of fighting, Russia announced on Sunday that it had captured the city of Lisichansk. Ukraine confirmed in the evening that its troops were withdrawing.