Kremlin's priority is to seize key cities and villages of Donetsk region – AFU General Staff

This was reported to the Military Media Center by the deputy chief of the AFU General Staff main operational department Oleksiy Hromov.

According to him, the Russians aim to capture the key settlements of Donetsk region in order to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions by summer. In particular, they seek to do this in order to disrupt the future AFU operations and the supply of weapons by allies, and to defend the land corridor to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

"The capabilities of the Russian forces to achieve significant operational success are limited due to the current shortage of resources, including ammunition for artillery systems. Russia keeps looking for ways to replenish resources. They count on their own military-industrial complex, which has certain limitations, and on some other countries," he added.

• British Intelligence reports that Vuhledar experienced heavy shelling: presumably, Russia is preparing for another offensive in this area.