MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia said Sunday it had captured another two settlements in east Ukraine, one in the Donetsk region and one in the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine did not immediately comment on Russia’s claims.
Moscow has been grinding forward on the front line for over a year, pressing its advantage against overstretched and outmanned Ukrainian troops.
On Sunday, Russia said it had captured the village of Piddubne in Donetsk and Sobolivka in Kharkiv.
Piddubne was home to around 500 people before the conflict and lies just seven kilometers from the border of Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Sobolivka village lies some three kilometers west of the town of Kupiansk, outside of areas Russia claims it is holding, according to battlefield maps by the United States-based Institute for the Study of War.
In two separate Telegram posts, the Russian defense ministry said its army units had “liberated” the settlements.
The Russian military accelerated its advances for a third consecutive month in June.