Russia on Saturday claimed the capture of another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region amid heavy fighting, as its forces advanced towards the city of Pokrovsk.
The defence ministry said Russian troops “liberated” the village of Lozuvatske, about 24 kilometres (15 miles) east of Pokrovsk and near the Russian-occupied small town of Ocheretnye.
Ukraine has not confirmed the village changing hands.
Kyiv’s defence ministry said early Saturday that Ukrainian forces had halted 37 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk area.
The hardest fighting was near the village of Novooleksandrivka, it said. This village is around two kilometres from Lozuvatske and was claimed by Russia last month.
On Saturday, Russian aerial bombing of the Donetsk region hit the town of Myrnograd close to Pokrovsk and the town of Kurakhove further south.
At least five people were wounded including an 11-year-old child who was in the yard of a private house, regional prosecutors said.
The head of the Donetsk regional administration Vadym Filashkin posted images of the aftermath, including an apartment block with windows blown out and debris strewn on the street.
“Not a day passes without Russian shelling. Protect yourself — evacuate!” he appealed to residents.
– Civilians killed –
In the northern Sumy region, a 14-year-old boy was killed and 12 wounded, six of them children, by Russia firing rocket launchers on the centre of the city of Glukhiv near the border with Russia, prosecutors said.
Another person was killed in the northeast Kharkiv region, while five were injured in Donestk in the east, authorities said.
In the southern Kherson region, a 37-year-old woman in Antonivka was killed while a 67-year-old man was seriously wounded by Russian shelling of the town of Bilozerka a few kilometres from the Dnipro river, the military administration said.
In Russia, a civilian was killed during Ukraine strikes in the border region of Belgorod, which is targetted almost daily by Kyiv’s forces, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
A source from Ukraine’s defence ministry also said Kyiv had attacked with drones a refinery and three airfields in Russia overnight.
The source also confirmed that three Russian military helicopters were targeted by “acts of sabotage”, one in Samara and two in the Moscow region.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba visited China this week and said during talks that Kyiv was prepared to negotiate with Russia when it showed itself willing to hold talks “in good faith”.
Moscow called statements by Ukrainian officials on the issue “contradictory”.
President Vladimir Putin has proposed Ukraine cede four regions to Russia and withdraw its NATO bid in exchange for an end to the fighting.
