Russia says it captured another village in eastern Ukraine

Russian forces said on Saturday they had captured another village in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv said five civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the south and east.

Russian forces “liberated the settlement of Zhelannoye Vtoroye” in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the defence ministry said, using the Russian name for the village of Zhelanne Druge.

The village is located close to Pokrovsk, a logistics hub for the Ukrainian army that is threatened by the advance of Russian troops.

Prosecutors in the Donetsk region said two civilians, a 65-year-old woman and an 86-year-old man, were killed in the city of Toretsk and the village of Velyka Novosilka.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, governor Ivan Fyodorov said two men aged 44 and 46 were killed by Russian shelling in the village of Mala Tokmachka.

Prosecutors in Kharkiv region said a 49-year-old man died when the car he was driving was hit by a Russian drone.

Also on Saturday Russian-installed authorities in the city of Gorlivka and in the Zaporizhzhia region said several civilians were wounded by Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes.

Russia launched its Ukraine offensive in February 2022 and currently occupies 18 percent of the country.

After a series of setbacks in 2022, Russian forces largely held ground in 2023 and have been advancing in 2024 against often outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces.