Russia claims capture of two more villages in Ukraine, Kyiv casts doubt

Russian military troops have captured two more villages in Ukraine, one in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another in ​the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of Hraniv ​in Kharkiv region on the border with Russia and Vozdvyzhivka ​in a highly contested part of Zaporizhzhia region.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has dismissed the Russian defence ministry’s claims, saying that Hraniv is still under Ukrainian control.

“Units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine are ​reliably holding designated defensive lines, effectively repelling enemy offensive actions, and inflicting significant losses on them in personnel and equipment,” it said on Facebook.

At the same time, DeepState, a Ukrainian ​war blog that tracks the two sides along the 1,250-km (775-mile) front ​line using open sources, said the Russian report of Vozdvyzhivka’s capture was untrue.

It added that while Russian troops had entered the village this month, they were either evicted or killed.

Russia, which ​holds about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, has been ​engaged in ⁠a long campaign to secure control over all of the eastern Donetsk region, announcing the capture of villages each week.

Ukraine launches deadly attack

Last week, Ukraine claimed that its armed forces had
killed several Russians in two strikes in the country’s occupied region in the east, as Kyiv ramps up its defences against Russia’s military infrastructure.

One of the attacks targeted a Russian drone pilot training camp in the town of Snizhne, killing at least 65 cadets and an instructor two days ago, on Wednesday, as per the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

Meanwhile, another wave of attack hit a Russian security service headquarters and an air defence system in Ukraine’s occupied region of Kherson, killing and injuring over 100 Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

What’s the status of the peace talks?

Zelenskyy has said that he hopes that trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US resume in the coming weeks, as he hailed “good contacts” between Ukrainian and US officials.

“If we can return to meaningful trilateral communication in these weeks and if we can involve the Europeans, that will be the right result. We, for our part, are ready for such appropriate steps. I expect that the partners will also be ready and that the Russians will not hide,” he said.

With inputs from agencies