Russia says captured another village in eastern Ukraine

Russian forces announced on Saturday that they had captured another village in eastern Ukraine, near the town of Kurakhove, as Moscow continued to make slow progress. The village, called Zhelannoye Vtoroye by Russia (known as Zhelanne Druge in Ukraine), is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, close to Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub for Ukraine’s army, now threatened by advancing Russian troops.

Authorities in Gorlivka, a city under Russian control, said 11 civilians were wounded by shelling from Ukrainian forces.

Separately, Russia’s defense ministry reported that it had shot down 10 Ukrainian drones overnight in its Belgorod, Voronezh, and Kursk regions, which border Ukraine. Voronezh’s governor, Alexander Gusev, said a civilian was injured by one of the Ukrainian drones.

On the other hand, two Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian strikes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to regional governor Ivan Fyodorov.

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now occupies about 18% of the country.

After suffering several setbacks in 2022, Russian forces have largely maintained their positions in 2023 and are advancing further in 2024, facing Ukrainian forces that are often outnumbered and outgunned.