Russian forces have taken control of the city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. Russia calls the city by its Soviet-era name of Dzerzhynsk and says Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region is now part of Russia,

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, but Ukraine's military denied the city had been captured and reported heavy fighting in and around it.