Russia claims to control 97% of Luhansk in Ukraine's Donbas region

Russia has claimed to have taken control of 97% of one of the two provinces that make up Ukraine's Donbas region.

Moscow's forces have control of nearly all of the Luhansk province, according to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Roughly half of the Donetsk province is also under Russian control, according to Ukrainian officials and military analysts.

After abandoning their attempt to capture Kyiv two months ago, Russia declared that taking the entire Donbas is its main objective.

ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo is in Ukraine and has been to the villages along the front line close to the city of Donetsk where the Russian forces are advancing

Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas since 2014, and the region has borne the brunt of the Russian onslaught in recent weeks.

Prior to Russia's invasion on February 24, Ukrainian officials said Russia controlled some seven percent of the country, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and areas held by the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces now hold 20% of the country.

Speaking at a Financial Times conference on Tuesday, Mr Zelenskyy said he is still open to peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said Moscow's forces have seized the residential quarters of Sievierodonetsk, a city in Luhansk, and are fighting to take control of an industrial zone on the city's outskirts and nearby towns.

Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk have seen heavy fighting in recent weeks. They are among a few cities and towns in the Luhansk region still holding out against the Russian invasion, which is being helped by local pro-Kremlin forces.

Mr Shoigu added that Russian troops were pressing their offensive toward the town of Popasna and have taken control of Lyman and Sviatohirsk and 15 other towns in the region.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged his people not to be downhearted about the battlefield reverses.

“Don’t let the news that we’ve ceded something scare you,” he said in a video address.

“It is clear that tactical maneuvers are ongoing. We cede something, we take something back."

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai conceded that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk.

“The toughest street battles continue, with varying degrees of success,” Mr Haidai said. “The situation constantly changes, but the Ukrainians are repelling attacks.”

Moscow’s forces also kept up their artillery barrage of Lysychansk on Tuesday. Mr Haidai said Russian troops shelled a market, a school and a college building, destroying the latter. At least three people were wounded, he said.

“A total destruction of the city is under way. Russian shelling has intensified significantly over the past 24 hours. Russians are using scorched-earth tactics,” Mr Haidai said.

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Early in the war, Russian troops also took control of the entire Kherson region and a large part of the Zaporizhzhia region, both in the south.

Russian officials and their local appointees have talked about plans for those regions to either declare their independence or be folded into Russia.

But in what may be the latest instance of anti-Russian sabotage inside Ukraine, Russian state media said on Tuesday that an explosion at a cafe in the city of Kherson wounded four people. Tass called the apparent bombing in the Russian-occupied city a “terror act.”