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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian forces have taken control of two more areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday, the latest in a series of gains that reported on its steady progress in the west.
The Ministry’s statement said that Russian forces are now in control of Petropavlivka, a village between the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, areas that have been the focus of fighting in recent months in the region.
It also noted the capture of Vremivka, one of a group of small southern towns in the Donetsk region.
The ministry also said that Russian forces hit Ukrainian military facilities with high-precision weapons in response to a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s southern Belgorod region with US-made ATACMS missiles.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side in the 34-month conflict.
Ukrainian military statements did not mention either of the two cities changing hands, but spoke of heavy fighting near the key town of Pokrovsk.
The well-known Ukrainian blog Deep State, which documents changes in positions held by both sides using open sources, has placed Petropavlivka and Vremivka in Russian hands.
The spokesperson of the Ukrainian army group of Khortytsya, or the eastern group of troops was disbanded on the second day with the impression that the Russian troops entered Pokrovsk.
“There is no progress in Pokrovsk, things are stagnant,” Viktor Trehubov told state television. “The enemy is not there.”
The city is a transport hub and the site of Ukraine’s only coal mine, where work was halted this week.
The Russian army, after failing to advance on the capital Kyiv in the weeks following its January 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has been focusing its attention on capturing the entire Donbas – made up of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Now it has about 20% of the territory of Ukraine.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in a late-night report, said that Russian forces trying to penetrate Ukrainian defenses launched 84 attacks in the Pokrovsk sector. Fourteen wars were raging there.
The report listed a series of villages in the sector it said had come under Russian attack – including three the Russian military said it had secured last week and one where Russia said it had taken control last month. .
