MOSCOW, Feb 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov 
visited troops fighting in east Ukraine as Russian forces advance in the 
area, the defence ministry said Saturday.

"General Valery Gerasimov ... visited a command post" in the Donetsk region, 
it said in a statement.

Russia is seeking to win control of Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk, two important 
frontline strongholds for the Ukrainian army.

Further to the north, Russia earlier on Saturday claimed the capture of 
Novolyubivka in the Lugansk region which is now largely under its control.

The Ukrainian army controls just a handful of localities in Lugansk, whose 
annexation Moscow claimed in 2022, the year it began its full-scale offensive 
on Ukraine.

Gerasimov's visit to the front comes as Washington and Moscow engage in a 
rapprochement, targeting a swift end to a conflict which has cost hundreds of 
thousands of lives.

Russia meanwhile hopes to obtain the lifting of American sanctions which have 
battered its economy.

But a possible return to the Russian market of American -- and Western -- 
companies will occur "on a case-by-case basis", Russian Minister of Economic 
Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, said on Saturday.

"The Russian market has been and remains open," Reshetnikov said as he 
indicated Moscow wants to maintain a "balance" between "taking into account 
consumer interests and maintaining market plurality in order to guarantee 
competition and keep prices under control."

Since 2022 brought an avalanche of Western sanctions, "the Russian economy 
has changed. Therefore, the requirements of foreign companies regarding 
location, investments and technologies will be very different," Reshetnikov 
warned.