(Moscow) Russia announced on Sunday that it had captured another village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, as Moscow continues to slowly advance on the battlefield.
Units of the Russian army have “liberated the locality of Chigari in the Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR), one of the Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to annex, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian forces have thus “improved their tactical situation,” he said.
The Russian army, which is taking advantage of the Ukrainian army’s difficulties in replenishing its ranks and obtaining more weapons and ammunition from the West, has been gaining ground for months. Kyiv considers that the worst fighting on the front is currently taking place in the Donetsk region.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his demand for any peace that Ukraine withdraw from the regions that Russia has been claiming to annex since September 2022 (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson).
Fire in explosives depot after Ukrainian drone attack
A fire broke out overnight from Saturday to Sunday in an explosives depot in the Russian region of Voronezh, bordering Ukraine, after an attack by Ukrainian drones, local authorities said.
“Several drones were detected and destroyed by air defense systems over the Voronezh region during the night,” regional governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.
“The fall of their debris caused a fire in a depot” in the Podgorenski district where “explosives began to detonate,” he added.
According to initial reports, “no one was injured,” Mr. Goussev stressed.
Rescuers were dispatched to the scene and the evacuation of residents of a town near the burning depot was underway, according to the same source.
Russia and Ukraine have made extensive use of drones, including large explosive devices with ranges of up to hundreds of kilometers, since the start of the Russian offensive in February 2022.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian territory in 2024, targeting both energy sites it says supply the Russian military and towns and villages just across the border.