Russia says its forces capture Dalne village in eastern Ukraine

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Dalne in the Donetsk region, a focal point of their advance in the 33-month-old war.

Ukraine’s General Staff made no acknowledgement of Dalne being in Russian hands.

The Ukrainian military’s late report mentioned the village as one of seven in an area where Russian forces had tried to pierce Ukrainian defences 26 times over the past 24 hours. It said 10 of 16 armed clashes in the area continued.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side.

Ukraine’s popular DeepState military blog said Dalne had fallen to Russia.

“The dynamics of fighting for this village have not been to our advantage in recent days,” DeepState said. Russian troops, it said, “have already raised their flag in the village and the enemy has already taken up positions in all parts of it.”

After failing to advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion, Russian troops have focused on capturing the Donbas, an area made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

They have seized village after village in their steady westward advance through Donetsk region.

Moscow’s forces have been advancing in the last two months at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data.

The towns of Kurakhove, near Dalne, and Pokrovsk have been major objectives.

Pokrovsk is the sole source of coking coal for Ukraine’s steel industry. Some reports say Russian troops now hold positions less than 10 km (6 miles) from the town.

Russian forces, who hold a little less than 20% of Ukraine’s territory, have also made advances farther north on the logistics town of Kupiansk in northeastern Kharkiv region.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Ron Popeski and Cynthia Osterman)