Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to continue the offensive in Ukraine after Russia captured the city of Lysychansk.

Mr Putin was shown on Russian TV calling on forces on other fronts to pursue their aims according to “previously approved plans”.

The capture means that all of Luhansk region is now in Russian hands.

Earlier the region’s Ukrainian governor said the city was abandoned so Russians would not destroy it from a distance.

Soldiers have now moved to new fortified positions, Serhiy Haidai told the BBC.

Losing the city and ceding control of Luhansk to Russia was painful, he said, but added: “This is just one battle we have lost, but not the war.”

He pleaded for more weapons from the West to offset the Russian advantage. President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged that Ukrainian forces will return to retake Lysychansk “thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons”.

Russia has now stepped up its bombardment of cities in the neighbouring Donetsk region, with the areas around Sloviansk and the road between Lysychansk and Bakhmut in particular being targeted, according to Ukrainian forces. Together the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk form the industrial Donbas area.