Russia says seized two villages in central Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday said it had wrested two villages in Ukraine, including one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, marking a fresh advance into an area largely spared seizures of land since Moscow launched its offensive in 2022. Overnight strikes by both sides meanwhile claimed six lives—four in central Ukraine and two in western Russia, according to officials in both countries.
The Russian army said its forces had 'liberated the settlement of Maliyevka' in Dnipropetrovsk weeks after it seized the first village in the region—not one of the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia.
In a separate message on Saturday, Moscow said it had 'liberated the settlement of Zeleny Gai' in Donetsk region on the border with Dnipropetrovsk, adding that it was an important stronghold used by Ukraine to protect the area. Further north in Kharkiv, a Russian strike destroyed a large boiler room that will be impossible to repair before winter, while in Sumy, another strike hit a regional administration building, local authorities said.
Supported by swarms of drones, Russia gains new settlements almost daily, but they are normally reduced to rubble and emptied of inhabitants after months of fighting. The summer offensive comes despite a call from the United States to cease violence and peace talks in Istanbul, which so far have yielded no breakthroughs. Further Russian advances could harm Ukraine's economy and energy supplies as Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, which has been occupied since 2014, are part of Ukraine's mining heartland, particularly for coal that powers the electricity grid. Ukrainian authorities have already been ordering civilians with children to flee a front line that is creeping closer. Deeper Russian advances could mean more attacks on one of Ukraine's largest cities, Dnipro, though Russian troops are around 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions—Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea—that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory. Meanwhile, a gas explosion at an apartment building in western Russia on Friday killed six people, with rescuers searching for four still missing, according to the authorities. More than 30 flats were destroyed in the blast in the city of Saratov, which occurred towards noon local time, said regional governor Roman Busargin. He announced a day of mourning.
'The number of deaths in Saratov has reached 6 people,' the Russian emergencies ministry said on Telegram. A man who spent more than six hours trapped under the rubble later succumbed to his wounds after being unearthed by rescuers, the ministry added. Sixteen people were wounded in the blast and search operations were ongoing late on Friday to find four missing persons, according to authorities cited by the TASS news agency. The Russian investigative committee said it had opened a probe into whether safety rules had been respected. Deadly gas accidents are relatively common in Russia, in part due to leaky Soviet-era infrastructure and a lax attitude to health and safety. – AFP
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