MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Russian forces currently control more than half of the territory of Volchansk, a city in the Kharkov Region, State Duma lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky told TASS.

"The territory [under Russian control] has grown and currently exceeds 50%," he said. "We are advancing carefully, but steadily."

He said Russian troops are successfully fulfilling their objectives.

"Putting aside small populated localities, which we are liberating on the way, our next goal is Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Krasnoarmeisk," he said, adding that the liberation of Volchansk will open the way to these cities.

Kiev admits that the situation in the region is extremely tense for the Ukrainian army. On May 14, the Ukrainian General Staff said that its armed forces had been coerced into "moving to more favorable positions" near Volchansk and Lukyantsy. The military command announced that more reserves had been transferred to the region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that some of those units had been withdrawn from other areas of the front. Zelensky chaired a meeting of the supreme commander-in-chief’s headquarters in Kharkov on May 16 and described the situation there as extremely complicated. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that a number of settlements had been liberated n the Kharkov Region.