MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which if confirmed would be the latest in a series of gains since capturing the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.
Ukrainian bloggers said that Kyiv’s forces had relinquished control of the village, southwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk. Ukraine’s military said fighting was still going on in the area.
“As a result of successful actions, the ‘east’ group of forces has taken control of the locality of Urozhaine in Donetsk region…and are carrying out mopping-up and demining operations,” the Russian Defence Ministry said on Telegram.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm the Ukrainian or Russian reports.
The village came under Russian control early in the February 2022 invasion, but Ukraine retook the settlement near the Mokri Yaly river in July 2023.
The operation was part of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in southern and eastern areas along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line that made only limited headway.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a Sunday morning report, said only that Russia had launched 18 attacks on Urozhaine and other nearby localities. It made no mention of the village in a late afternoon report.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian military blog, reported Urozhaine’s capture on Sunday, saying Russian forces had launched “mass assaults on the south of the village”.
It described the loss as a “defence collapse” whose cause would have to be investigated.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Alexander Marrow and Ron Popeski; Editing by Jan Harvey and Lisa Shumaker)
