UK intel says Russia mostly controls one half of Ukraine's Donbas region and will likely switch to taking the rest

• The UK's defence ministry said Russia had seized half the eastern Donbas region from Ukraine.
• Officials said the Luhansk region was mostly Russia's now, with Donetsk next in its sights.

The Russian military has seized control of the last Ukrainian stronghold in the Luhansk region, and will likely refocus its campaign on conquering a larger swath of eastern Ukraine, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The ministry in a tweet early Monday said Russia had made "steady progress" in its campaign to seize the city of Lysychansk, the site of ferocious recent fighting.

On Sunday Russia drove Ukrainian forces out of the city, the last in the Luhansk region that still belonged to Ukraine.

—Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) July 4, 2022

"Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from Lysychansk, likely falling back to prepared defensive positions," tweeted the MoD. "The city was the last remaining major population centre in Luhansk Oblast under Ukrainian control."

Ukrainian officials have also acknowledged their defeat in the city, though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to retake it soon.

The UK predicted that Russian efforts would now focus on Donetsk, the more southerly region of the Donbas where it has made more limited gains.

The Donbas is an economically important part of eastern Ukraine comprising the administrative regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. It has been the focus of Russia's campaign after the failure of its first, much broader offensive, which aimed to take vast amounts of Ukrainian territory, including the capital Kyiv, in one swoop.

"The fight for the Donbas has been grinding and attritional and this is highly unlikely to change in the coming weeks," the UK update said.

Parts of both Luhansk and Donetsk have been occupied by separatist forces since 2014, who fought the Ukrainian military for years in an inconclusive campaign. After Russian invaded in February, the separatists and Russian troops together turned the balance against Ukraine.

The Russian military has an advantage both in the number of troops and the power of its artillery, a decisive factor in the fighting in the Donbas.

Ukraine has made some smaller gains of its own. Last week Ukrainian forces had a notable victory in seizing back control of Snake Island in the Black Sea from Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urgently appealed for more weapons from the West to halt the Russian campaign. Recently the US has delivered HIMARS missile systems to Ukraine, allowing Ukraine to hit targets at a 50-mile distance.