Moscow's response is spooky; This city no longer exists, it's a ghost town VIDEO

Moscow's response is spooky; This city no longer exists, it's a ghost town VIDEO

Valery Zaluzhny admitted that his soldiers had mostly retreated, adding that new lines of defense had been prepared in front of the city, which was mostly destroyed and abandoned but had strategic importance.

Marinka is less than 30 kilometers southwest of the Russian-administered city of Donetsk. When the Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu announced that Marinka was occupied, the Ukrainian army denied it, and in response to Kyiv, Russia released a spooky video from that city on public television today.

The images, taken from the air, show an endless gray. The cloudy sky merges with the ruins scattered on the gray ground.

In some places, there is still something left, barely recognizable such as the remains of residential buildings, but most of the buildings have been razed to the ground. Most reports describe Marinka, southwest of the center of Russian-held Donetsk, as a ghost town. The capture of that city is one of the most significant territorial gains for Moscow since the capture of Bakhmut in May.

Vladimir Putin said that control of the city, which was once home to up to 10,000 people, would enable Russian forces to repel enemy units from Donetsk. "Our forces (now) have an opportunity to reach a wider area for operations," the Russian president said in a video of a conversation he had with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.