Ukraine’s president has claimed Kyiv’s troops have full control over the Russian town of Sudzha, which had a prewar population of 5,000 people and contains infrastructure pumping Russian gas towards Europe, Ednews informs via The Guardian.

Sudzha, roughly six miles (9.6km) inside Russian territory, is the biggest of 80 settlements that Ukraine claims to have taken during the 10 days since its surprise incursion into Russia began.

“General Syrskyi reported on the completion of the liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Russian military. A Ukrainian military commandant’s office is being established there now,” said Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after receiving a briefing from the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Thursday.

The claim could not be independently verified, but a Ukrainian television channel broadcast a report from Sudzha on Wednesday suggesting the town was under Ukrainian control.

While some residents have remained, sheltering from the fighting in basements, most have been evacuated. “We hid in the bushes,” said one, Tatyana Anikeyeva, speaking to Russian television from a facility helping evacuees. “Volunteers were handing out water, food, bread to people on the go. The sound of the cannonade continued without any break. The house was shaking.”

Sudzha hosts a measuring station for Russian natural gas arriving from western Siberia, which then flows through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe, accounting for about 3% of European gas imports.