Russia said Tuesday that its army had seized a new village in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, accelerating its claimed advance into the key industrial area.
Russian forces have recently claimed to have captured territory in the region for the first time since the start of its offensive in 2022.
Kyiv has in the past week denied any Russian presence in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured another village in the region, Sichneve, as “a result of active and decisive actions”.
Kyiv has been trying to repel a fresh Russian offensive as US President Donald Trump’s Friday deadline for Moscow to make progress towards peace nears.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.
In a set of demands issued to Ukraine during talks in Istanbul that failed to yield a breakthrough, Moscow demanded formal recognition that these regions were part of Russia.
Kyiv has repeatedly ruled that out.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted a “lasting and stable peace” in Ukraine but added that Moscow’s condition for peace remained unchanged.
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© Agence France-Presse
