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(CNN) --
Russia claims to have taken control of Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine that was still under Ukrainian control.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Russian President Vladimir Putin that the army had seized Lysychansk and several nearby settlements on Sunday, according to the country's Defense Ministry.
Luhansk is one of two regions that make up Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014. The area has become the key center of Putin's military ambition in Ukraine after that his troops failed to take control of Kyiv earlier this year.
The fall of Lysychansk would bring Russia closer to achieving the goal of seizing Donbas.
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However, the Ukrainian military insisted earlier on Sunday that it was still in control of the city, although it admitted that Russian forces were closing in.
Serhiy Hayday, head of the military administration of the Luhansk region, said that although Russian forces were taking losses, they were "stubbornly advancing" on Lysychansk.
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"The Russians are entrenched in Lysychansk district, the city is on fire. The occupiers probably deployed all their forces in Lysychansk. They attacked the city with inexplicably brutal tactics," Hayday said on Sunday.
Russian-backed separatists in the area have already won a victory in the battle for Lysychansk.
The People's Militia of the self-proclaimed Russian-recognized Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) claimed on Saturday that Lysychansk was surrounded by Russian forces.
Andrei Marochko, an LPR militia officer, said the city was being "cleansed of Ukrainian nationalists" and said "victory flags have already been installed" near Lysychansk.
The video shared by the Russian state media outlet Ria Novosti on Saturday purports to show residents installing the former Soviet Union flag at the Memorial to the Fallen in Lysychansk.
The Institute for the Study of War said Russia is likely to establish control over the remaining territory of the Luhansk region in the coming days.
After that, the institute said in its latest update, Russian troops will likely concentrate on Ukrainian positions at Siversk, west of Lysychansk, before heading inland to Slovyansk and Bakhmut.
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The military administration of the Donetsk region reported on Sunday that Russian forces continued to bombard Slovyansk and Bakhmut, with at least six people killed in attacks overnight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the cities of the Luhansk region "the epicenter" of hostilities.
In his late-night speech on Saturday, Zelensky acknowledged that more than 2,600 Ukrainian cities and towns were under Russian control.
"The Russian army continued to fire missiles at our cities," Zelensky said, urging people to "help the army, help the volunteers, help everyone who is left alone at this time" and use their contacts to "spread the truth." about the war and about the crimes of the occupants of our land".
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they destroyed a Russian military base in Melitopol in southern Ukraine early Sunday, the city's exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov said in a video address.
Melitopol fell under Russian control in early March, weeks after the Kremlin-ordered invasion of Ukraine.
According to Fedorov, the Ukrainian troops fired "more than 30 shots exclusively at the military base", rendering it "unable to function".
"Now the whole city is covered with smoke. This has been going on for three to four hours. Warehouses on the territory of the transport aviation base are burning," Fedorov added.
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The head of the Russian-installed council in the Zaporizhia region, Evgeny Balitsky, said in a Telegram post on Sunday that "shells fell on the territory at the airfield" and "there were no casualties."
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti also confirmed the attack, reporting that Ukraine had targeted the Aviagorodok area in Melitopol, but did not specify what the target had been.
CNN's Zahra Ullah and Radina Gigova contributed reporting.