Russian forces advance towards the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomerationThe final battle for Donetsk is approaching.While the world’s attention is fixated in the military confrontations in thew Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine war plows on, as brutal as ever.In its fifth year, the conflict seems somewhat less intense, but while Ukrainian forces did claim some victories on the ground, the Russian advance towards fulfilling its goals in the war is ongoing.Top General Valery Gerasimov announced that Russian forces have conquered 656 square miles of territory in Ukraine this year, and are in the process of advancing on the Slavyansk- Kramatorsk fortress belt in Donetsk – the last bastion held by Kiev in the region that’s the cradle of this war.General Gerasimov presents state awards to distinguished servicemen — ‘Army is moving toward Slavyansk & Kramatorsk, all Donetsk lands’ pic.twitter.com/z1t3pnADLd— RT (@RT_com) April 21, 2026Reuters reported:“Russia has since its 2022 invasion been seeking to take the whole of the Donbas area in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back towards a line of cities in grinding fighting.”Kiev also announced days ago that it had regained control of nearly 50 square km of its territory in March.Watch: Russian FAB-3000 bomb attack in Konstantinovka.#UkraineRussiaWar #Odessa#Kupyansk #Konstantinovka#Slavyansk #OreshnikThe same arrival of a FAB-3000 with a UMPK in Konstantinovka, captured by a Russian drone and an drone pic.twitter.com/cgIn4MfBvS— Koba (@Krieg2026) April 21, 2026“’Since the beginning of this year, a total of 80 settlements and more than 1,700 square kilometers of territory have come under our control’, Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said in footage released by the defense ministry on Tuesday.[…] Gerasimov said Russia’s Southern Grouping of forces was attacking the Donetsk fortress belt comprising the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka, and that Russian forces were about 7 to 12 km (4.3 to 7.5 miles) from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.”While the advance of the Eastern Donetsk takes place, the Russians are also advancing in the north, creating a ‘buffer zone’ in Sumy and Kharkov regions.Read more:Give Peace a Chance: Viktor Orbán Meets with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago – “The Good News of the Day: He’s Going to Solve It!”/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i