Ukrainian forces were pushed out of the key Donbass city on Thursday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported

Russian soldiers have begun providing aid to civilians in the newly liberated city of Seversk in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), video footage provided by the Defense Ministry shows. The former Ukrainian stronghold was cleared of enemy troops earlier on Thursday, according to the ministry.

Troops have been going door-to-door to provide assistance to the civilians remaining the city, the MOD said in a statement later in the day.

"Local residents greet the Russian servicemen and thank them for liberating the city. The soldiers deliver food, drinking water, and medicine," it said.

Civilians are also offered the opportunity to be evacuated to temporary accommodation away from the front line, where they receive all necessary assistance, it added.

Simultaneously, Russian sappers are demining the area.

The fortified Donbass city had seen sporadic fighting since 2022. Taking Seversk opens up the way for Russian forces to advance on the key cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, both of which are major hubs for the Ukrainian military.

Russian troops are in fact already moving toward Slavyansk, the commander of Russia's 3rd Army Corps, Lieutenant General Igor Kuzmenkov, told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on Thursday.

Putin noted that with a "steady and regular" liberation of settlements in Russia's Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, "the strategic initiative is entirely in the hands of the Russian Armed Forces."

Russian forces have taken dozens of settlements in the new regions, as well as in Ukraine's Kharkov, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions since the start of November. These included the major logistical hubs of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) in the DPR, and Kupyansk in Ukraine's Kharkov Region.