Russian forces continue to advance on the front in Ukraine, capturing a village in the Donetsk region, gaining better positions in the Kharkiv region and repelled a number of Ukrainian attacks, Reuters reported, citing a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense, BTA reported.
Russia controls about 18 percent of Ukraine's territory - in the east and south of the country - and has been making progress since the failure of a Ukrainian counter-offensive last year. In February, Russia managed to capture the important town of Avdeevka in the eastern Donetsk region, and its forces have been advancing in the area in recent days.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced today that the country's armed forces have taken control of the village of Semyonovka, northwest of Avdeevka. Russia said it had defeated Ukrainian forces and foreign mercenaries in a number of other settlements in the area. Yesterday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the capture of Novobakhmutovka - another village near the settlement of Ocheretino, which in recent days has become the center of hostilities.
Moscow also reported defeats to Ukrainian troops in the Sinkovka region of Kharkiv Oblast and at a number of other points along the front line, noting that Russian forces had struck Ukrainian drones. The General Staff of Ukraine reported that Ukrainian troops repelled enemy attacks in the Semyonovka region, as well as a number of other Russian attacks.
Reuters makes the stipulation that for now it cannot verify through an independent source the information of both sides in the conflict about the development of hostilities. Both Russia and Ukraine impose restrictions on journalists covering the war.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 claimed thousands of lives and sparked the biggest crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The West and Ukraine say they will not stop fighting until Russian forces would not be defeated, and framed the war as an imperial-style land grab aimed at forcing the country back into Moscow's orbit. However, Russia is rearming faster than the West, has a larger army than before the invasion and has a population several times that of Ukraine, which is trying to increase its military strength, Reuters noted. .
The Kremlin claims it will achieve all its goals within the so-called special military operation in Ukraine, parts of which Russia considers its territory. Russia is framing the war as a battle with the West, which Putin says has ignored Moscow's attempts to establish friendly relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and is seeking to establish control over Ukraine at the same time as NATO expands eastward.
"In the coming weeks, Russian forces are likely to continue to achieve tactical success in the Avdeev direction," predicted the Institute for the Study of War, a research organization that says it is committed to helping achieve the strategic goals of the United States, notes Reuters. "The next line of defensible settlements in the area is some distance from the Ukrainian defense line, which Russian forces have been attacking since the capture of Avdeyevka in mid-February this year,", the Washington-based think tank also wrote.