Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting.

The advance, if confirmed, would mark a significant gain for Moscow's forces and could enable them to press on towards key "fortress" cities in the Donetsk region, including Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Ukraine's general staff on Thursday morning said Russian forces had attacked locations near Chasiv Yar.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source mapping site that charts the front lines, showed Ukraine's forces controlling the western part of the town.

The battle for Chasiv Yar began in April last year, when Russian paratroopers reached its eastern edge. Russian state media reported then that Russian soldiers had begun phoning their Ukrainian counterparts inside the town to demand they surrender or be wiped out by aerial guided bombs.

The town, now in ruins, had a pre-war population of more than 12,000 and its economy was based around a factory that produced reinforced concrete products and clay used in bricks.

It lies just west of Bakhmut, which Russia captured in 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of the war.