The Latest Breaking News from Donetsk

A ‘terrible smell of death’ hangs over the outskirts of the eastern city of Severodonetsk

A ship has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia took the city and is headed east to Russia, Interfax quoted the Russian-backed separatist leader of the Ukrainian breakaway region of Donetsk as saying on Tuesday.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russia had taken control of most of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a bombed-out wasteland whose capture Moscow has made the principal objective of its invasion.

Russian forces now control "most" of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after days of fierce fighting, the regional governor of Luhansk said Tuesday. Governor Sergiy Gaiday said "90 percent" of the city was destroyed and there was now no possibility of leaving Severodonetsk. Read our live blog to see…

Russian forces have seized control of about a third of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, but their assault was taking longer than they had hoped, according to a Moscow-backed separatist leader quoted in a TASS news agency report.

Journalist was in an evacuation vehicle in Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in the Donbas still held by Ukrainian forces

(Refiles to clarify that speaker was spokesman for defence ministry of Ukraine)

Shelling has killed two civilians and wounded five others as Russian troops advanced into the city's fringes, Luhansk region Governor Serhiy Gaidai says, with Ukraine determined to slow an offensive across the Donbas region.

Witnesses say tanks moving into Sievierodonetsk amid intense shelling and civilian casualties

An estimated 15,000 civilians in Severodonetsk remain trapped by heavy fighting amid a constant barrage of artillery.

The Russian-battered eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk appeared to be on the brink of becoming another Mariupol on Monday as services and aid have been cut and Moscow seeks to capture all of Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region