Russian forces gain control of two settlements in Ukraine, Russian military says

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian military forces have gained control of two more villages in Ukraine in areas where they have been making advances, one in the eastern Donetsk region and the other in the Kharkiv region in the northeast, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

A ministry statement issued on Sunday said Russian troops had seized Piddubne in the Donetsk region, where Moscow’s forces have long been advancing slowly westward. The statement said Russian forces also captured Sobolivka, near the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, another area that for months has been under Russian attack.

A subsequent Russian ministry statement said the “east” group of the Russian forces penetrated defences around Piddubne. The village is located southwest of Pokrovsk, one of the focal points of Russian military action in the drive to secure control over all of the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s General Staff in its own statement made no mention of either village changing hands. But it reported Russian attacks in other villages near Kupiansk, which according to local officials has been all but destroyed after being occupied by Russian forces in the first weeks after the February 2022 invasion and later recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

Sobolivka is located west of the town and the Russia statement, if accurate, would indicate some Russian gains in the area.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side.

Separately, Interfax news agency said Russian forces hit a Ukrainian air base, a facility for the production of components for long-range drones and ammunition warehouses.

And in the northeastern region of Sumy, where Russian forces have carved out a foothold in recent weeks, Russian shelling killed two residents in the village of Bytytsya, just inside the border, the regional governor said.

Russia controls nearly 19% of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine, including the Luhansk region in the east, more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

Russia has said Ukraine must abandon four regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as part of any prospective peace settlement.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alison Williams, Will Dunham and Ron Popeski)