Russia take control of two settlements in Ukraine

Russian troops have taken control of two more settlements along the 1000km front line in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s Defence Ministry says.

The ministry announced on Friday the capture of three villages in its slow advance across the region.

Ukraine’s military did not acknowledge that any of the villages had changed hands.

But it said its forces had recaptured from Russian troops a settlement further west on the edge of Dnipropetrovsk region.

Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.

Since an unsuccessful attempt to advance on the capital Kyiv in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s troops have focused on seizing the Donbas region in the east, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Russian announcement identified the last two villages to be captured as Kleban-Byk, northwest of the town of Toretsk, which has been under attack for months, and Seredne, closer to the administrative border of northeastern Kharkiv region.

Two of the villages described as captured on Friday -- Katerynivka and Rusyn Yar -- are located near another beleaguered city, Kostiantynivka.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said only that Katerynivka was one of several localities that came under enemy attack.

A separate military statement said Ukrainian forces had retaken the village of Zelenyi Hai -- adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk region, where Moscow says its forces have made inroads.

The statement said the village was being subjected to new Russian attacks.

Ukraine’s military spy agency said it had conducted a joint operation with military units to halt advances in the Donetsk region as well as attempts to break through into Dnipropetrovsk region.

Meanwhile, Russian air defences on Saturday downed a drone headed for Moscow and specialists were examining fragments on the ground, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

Several airports in central Russia suspended operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia’s air transport agency Rosaviatsia said.

In a series of announcements over several hours, Rosaviatsia said operations had been suspended at airports in Izhevsk, Nizhniy Nolvgorod, Samara, Penza, Tambov and Ulyanovsk, east and southeast of Moscow.

Officials at the airport in Russia’s second-largest city, St Petersburg, were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that dozens of flights had been delayed.