Russian says its troops capture another village in eastern Ukraine

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday its forces had captured another village in eastern Ukraine as it advances westward through the region of Donetsk more than three years into its invasion of its smaller neighbour.

A ministry statement said Russian forces had captured the village of Andriivka – west of the logistics centre of Kurakhove, which Moscow said it had taken in early January.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military made no mention of Andriivka falling into Russian hands. But in a late evening report, it mentioned the settlement as one of five that had come under attack during 17 attempts by Russian forces to pierce Ukrainian defences in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk region.

The report said one armed clash was still going on late in the evening.

The unofficial Ukrainian military blog DeepState, which outlines the frontline positions of both sides based on open sources, said it was uncertain who controlled Andriivka.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.

Russia’s military has concentrated on securing Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after failing in the weeks after the February 2022 invasion to advance on the capital Kyiv.

Moscow controls about 2 % of Ukrainian territory and for months has been reporting a slow but steady advance westward across Donetsk, capturing village after village.

Fighting has focused on the town of Pokrovsk, also a logistics hub and the site of Ukraine’s only colliery producing coking coal for steelmaking. The colliery has been closed down as Russian forces approached.

Ukrainian military officials and commentators have been reporting successes in recent weeks in defending Pokrovsk and a decline in Russian attempts to storm it.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Ron Popeski; editing by Alexandra Hudson and Lincoln Feast.)