Russian Forces Gain Control of Maryinka in East Ukraine, Defense Minister Says

Ukrainian Army snipers are silhouetted at a shooting range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian Army snipers are silhouetted at a shooting range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
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Russian Forces Gain Control of Maryinka in East Ukraine, Defense Minister Says

Ukrainian Army snipers are silhouetted at a shooting range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian Army snipers are silhouetted at a shooting range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)

Russian forces have gained full control of Maryinka, a town in eastern Ukraine, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin, one of Russia's most significant gains since the capture of Bakhmut in May.

Most accounts of Maryinka, southwest of the Russian-held regional center of Donetsk, describe it as a ghost town.

Putin said control of the town, which was once home to 10,000 people, will allow the Russian forces to move enemy combat units away from Donetsk.

"Our troops (now) have the opportunity to reach a wider operational area," he said in a video of the exchange between him and Shoigu posted online by a Kremlin journalist.

Russia's last major success on the battlefield was the capture in May of Bakhmut, theater of some of the bloodiest fighting. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June aimed at retaking land in the country's south and east, including Bakhmut.

Kyiv's forces have made little progress in the counteroffensive in the face of entrenched Russian resistance.

Russian troops have also intensified land and air-based attacks on the nearby town of Avdiivka since mid-October as the focal point of their slow-moving push through eastern Ukraine's Donbas region in the 22-month-old conflict.

Avdiivka was briefly captured in 2014 by Russian-backed separatists who seized large chunks of eastern Ukraine. Fortifications were later built around the town - seen as a gateway to Donetsk.

"Ukrainian defense forces continued to hold back the enemy in the areas of Maryinka and Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region, repelling five Russian attacks," Ukrainian General Staff said in its dispatch early on Monday.

There have been no comments so far from Ukraine on the latest developments.



US Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin as Trump Tells Moscow to ‘Get Moving’ on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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US Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin as Trump Tells Moscow to ‘Get Moving’ on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg about the search for a peace deal on Ukraine as Trump told Russia to "get moving".

Putin was shown on state TV greeting Witkoff in St. Petersburg's presidential library at the start of the negotiations and state news agencies later said the talks lasted more than four hours.

"The theme of the meeting — aspects of a Ukrainian settlement," the Kremlin said in a statement after the meeting concluded.

Witkoff has emerged as a key figure in the on-off rapprochement between Moscow and Washington amid talk on the Russian side of potential joint investments in the Arctic and in Russian rare earth minerals.

The Izvestia news outlet earlier released video of Witkoff leaving a hotel in the city, accompanied by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's investment envoy.

Dmitriev called the talks on Friday productive, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

However, the talks come at a time when US-Russia dialogue aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appears to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause in hostilities.

Trump, who has shown signs of losing patience, has spoken of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is dragging its feet on a Ukrainian deal.

Ukrainian officials have in recent days sent Washington a list of targets it believes Russia has struck in violation of the energy infrastructure ceasefire the two countries agreed to last month, according to two people familiar with the list.

On Friday, Trump said in a post on Truth Social: "Russia has to get moving. Too many people (are) DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war - A war that should have never happened, and wouldn't have happened, if I were President!!!"

Putin has said he is ready in principle to agree to a full ceasefire, while emphasizing that crucial implementation details remain unresolved and what he describes as the war's root causes have yet to be addressed.

Specifically, he has said that Ukraine should not join NATO, that the size of its army needs to be limited, and that Russia should get the entirety of the territory of the four Ukrainian regions it claims as its own despite not fully controlling them.

With Moscow controlling just under 20% of Ukraine and Russian forces continuing to advance on the battlefield, the Kremlin believes Russia is in a strong position when it comes to negotiations and that Ukraine should make concessions.

Kyiv says Russia's terms would amount to a capitulation.

TRUMP-PUTIN MEETING?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff might discuss the possibility of the Russian leader meeting Trump face-to-face.

Putin and Trump have spoken by phone but have yet to meet in person since the US leader returned to the White House in January for a second four-year term.

However, Peskov played down the Witkoff-Putin talks, telling Russian state media before they started that the US envoy's visit would not be "momentous" and no breakthroughs were expected.

He said the meeting would be a chance for Russia to express its concerns. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of violating a moratorium on striking each other's energy infrastructure.

The meeting, the third this year between Putin and Witkoff, comes at a time when US tensions with Iran and China, both close allies of Moscow, have been heightened by Tehran's nuclear program and a burgeoning trade war with Beijing.

Witkoff, who visited a synagogue in St. Petersburg earlier on Friday, is due in Oman on Saturday for talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump has threatened Tehran with military action if it does not agree to a deal. Moscow has repeatedly offered its help in trying to clinch a diplomatic settlement.

US and Russian officials said they had made progress during talks in Istanbul on Thursday towards normalizing the work of their diplomatic missions as they begin to rebuild ties.

A February meeting between Witkoff and Putin culminated with the US envoy flying home with Marc Fogel, an American teacher whom Washington had said was wrongfully detained by Russia.

A Russian-American spa worker Ksenia Karelina, who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia, was exchanged on Thursday for Arthur Petrov, whom the US had accused of forming a global smuggling ring to transfer sensitive electronics to Russia's military.