Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine

Ukrainian forces have repelled a Russian assault on the village of Bilohorivka, one of the few pockets inside the Luhansk region still controlled by Kyiv, the head of Luhansk region military administration said on Tuesday.

“The main efforts of the [Russians] are focused on establishing control over the territory of the Luhansk region within its administrative borders,” Serhiy Hayday said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to have announced an operational pause for the Russian forces that had taken over most of Luhansk, with him congratulating them on Monday. But Ukrainian reports from the frontline suggest otherwise. According to an update from the General Staff of the Ukraine military, fighting on the administrative borders of the region continues. 

In the neighboring region of Donetsk, also in the Donbas, several cities were shelled, including Avdiivka, Marinka and Bakhmut, with residential buildings and civil infrastructure damaged, the Ukrainian military said.

According to the military, at least two people were killed and six were wounded in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Donetsk region “remains difficult,” the head of Donetsk regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a televised address Tuesday.

“There is not a single safe city in Donetsk region where there is no shelling,” Kyrylenko added.

Kyrylenko said that “in cities that are relatively far from the front line, cruise missiles are used” while “all types of artillery, tanks, missiles, aerial bombs” target the front line.

In the areas already under Russian control, Ukrainian officials say Moscow’s focus is on establishing a control structure. 

“In Severodonetsk, a commandant’s office was created, which, according to their plan, should replace the local government, and they are looking for housing and communal services specialists,” the Ukrainian military said.