Photo caption: A young couple embrace at a makeshift memorial for the fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Independence Square in Kyiv on September 7, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)
Russia said on Saturday it had seized another village in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s troops are continuing to advance.
The defence ministry said Russian forces “have liberated the village of Kalynove” in the Donetsk region, which lies around 25 kilometres (16 miles) southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, held by Kyiv’s forces.
Russian troops have been advancing on Pokrovsk for months and Ukraine has ordered the mandatory evacuation of children from the city.
Moscow has claimed to have captured a string of villages in the area, even as it struggles to fight off a major Ukrainian counter-attack into its own western Kursk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia’s “primary objective” in the conflict was to capture the entire Donbas region — which consists of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Moscow claimed to have annexed them, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, months after it launched its full-scale military offensive and despite not having full control over them.
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