MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Sunday its forces had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as Moscow’s forces advance on the strategically important town of Pokrovsk and try to break through Ukrainian defensive front lines.
Russian forces, which control about a fifth of Ukraine since they invaded in February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in a bid to take all of Donbas, which is about half the size of the US state of Ohio.
Russia’s defense minister said its forces had taken the town of Novohrodivka, which is 12 km (7 miles) from Pokrovsk, a key rail and road hub for Ukrainian forces in the area. The town had a population of 14,000 before the war.
Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, published maps showing Russian forces attacking beyond Novohrodivka in at least two locations less than 7 km (4 miles) from Pokrovsk.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports from either side because of restrictions on reporting in the war.
President Vladimir Putin said last week that a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region had failed to slow Russia’s own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kiev’s front-line defenses in a boost for Moscow.
Ukraine’s top military commander said Thursday that Kiev’s incursion into the Kursk region was working and that there had been no Russian advances on Pokrovsk in the past six days.
He said one of the aims of the Kursk incursion was to divert Russian forces from other areas, mainly Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia had diverted large numbers to Kursk, but also strengthened the Pokrovsk front, he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the Kursk operation was also to prevent Russian forces from crossing the border in the opposite direction.
Russia currently controls about 80% of Donbas. Given the speed of recent Russian advances in the East, some Russian war bloggers have expressed concern about the army’s abuses.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what he calls a special military operation. Ukraine and its Western backers have vowed to defeat Russian forces and expel all Russian troops.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Additional reporting by Reuters bureau in Kiev; Editing by Jan Harvey)