Ukraine updates: Russia claims additional advances in Donetsk

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces have captured villages in two key front-line areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as Moscow’s troops continue their advance toward the logistical hub of Pokrovsk and the industrial town of Kurakhove.

In a daily briefing on Sunday, it said the villages of Vesely Gai and the village of Pushkine had been “liberated.”

Russian forces have been pushing forward in the Donetsk region for months now, and their advance seems to have recently accelerated.

Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of troops on Sunday spoke of “exhausting clashes” on the fringes of Kurakhove and in the town itself, as well as to the north in the hilltop town of Chasiv Yar, which has come under intense attack.

“The situation is complex and changing. Our troops are currently taking measures to improve the tactical situation,” the group of troops said on Telegram.

Suspected Ukrainian drones have hit parts of Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, local media reported on Sunday.

A military camp and a base used by the OMON special police unit were targeted in the attack, the opposition Telegram channels NIYSO and Ostorozhno Novosti said.

There was no information on possible casualties or damage.

It was the third suspected Ukrainian strike on the region since the start of the month, with a number of soldiers injured in one of them when a barracks was struck.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent troops to assist Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 56 of the 108 drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday.

It said another 49 were “locationally lost,” which typically means they were rendered directionless by electronic jamming.

The air force said debris from the destroyed drones damaged an unspecified piece of infrastructure as well as apartment buildings and homes.

zc/tj (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)