Moscow reports capture of three villages in eastern Ukraine

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that its troops had captured three more towns in eastern Ukraine. According to a statement published on the Telegram platform, these are the villages of Derylove and Majske in the Donetsk region and Stepove in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow is presenting its territorial gains as part of a gradual offensive aimed at pushing back Ukrainian forces on several fronts. However, the Russian advance in the east of the country is slow and has resulted in heavy losses on both sides.

Ukraine has intensified its drone attacks on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure in recent weeks in order to limit Moscow's ability to launch further attacks. The fighting is mainly concentrated in the Donetsk region, which has long been one of the Kremlin's main targets.

(reuters, sab)