Putin says Russian forces will seize capital of Zaporizhzhya

Russian forces are preparing to capture the capital of Zaporizhzhya, a southern Ukrainian region illegally annexed by Moscow and largely under Russian control, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

Russian troops are already 15 kilometres south of the border of the regional capital, which is also called Zaporizhzhya, military officials reported at a meeting with Putin.

Putin said the Dnepr and Vostok units are to jointly capture the city.

Following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia occupied most of the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya as well as the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Despite illegally annexing them, it does not fully control any of the four regions.

Defence Minister Andrei Belousov described the situation on the battlefield as "very dynamic," saying that the Russian military was currently achieving more than planned.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin that forces would now target the contested city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.

Operations to fully seize the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya were going according to plan, he said, adding that Russian forces were advancing deep into the defensive positions of the Ukrainian armed forces.

It is not possible to independently verify the claims. The Ukrainian military recently rejected alleged Russian advances reported by Putin as fabricated.