Fierce Fighting in Ukraine’s Donetsk as Russians Press ahead to Seize Donbass

On Thursday, heavy clashes were reported around the town of Pisky, located in Pokrovsk district and some 10 kilometers northwest of Donetsk, the capital of a province of the same name.

According to an official with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Pisky was under control of Russian and separatist forces as of Thursday.

“It's hot in Pisky. The town is ours but there remain scattered pockets of resistance in its north and west," Danil Bezsonov said.

The latest battlefield accounts by the pro-Russia official came as Ukrainian officials have denied that the heavily-fortified Pisky, a key to the defense of Donetsk, has been seized by advancing Russian troops.

The developments on Thursday came a day after Kiev accused Moscow of using Zaporizhzhia, a nuclear plant, to the west to shield its artillery.

Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world. Russian forces seized the plant soon after the ongoing offensive began. Ukraine accuses Russia of storing heavy weapons in the plant. Moscow accuses Kiev of targeting the facility.

Russia began its "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, to demilitarize and "de-Nazify" its neighbor and to "liberate" the Donbass, which is composed of the two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The Russian military has said it has fully captured Luhansk and has concentrated its efforts to seize the other region.

In 2014, both regions were turned into self-proclaimed republics by ethnic Russians, leading to a bloody conflict between the government forces and the armed separatists. The years-long conflict killed more than 14,000 people, mostly from the Donbass, with Moscow accusing Kiev of committing atrocities against ethnic Russians in the two breakaway regions.