Russia claims to have captured two villages in eastern Ukraine where Russian troops have been advancing steadily for months, with Ukraine’s president urging allies to deliver all the weapons they have pledged to send to Kiev.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that soldiers had captured the village of Yantarny in the eastern Donetsk region, about 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of Kulakhov, which Moscow claimed last week A key logistical hub was captured – just a day after the Russian military said it had also captured new territory northwest of Kurakhov.

The defense ministry added that soldiers also occupied the village of Kalinov in the northeastern part of the Kharkiv region.

The village, located on the west bank of the Oskill River, has long been a frontline between the two armies in the area.

Agence France-Presse quoted Ukrainian officials as saying on Thursday that Russian troops had successfully established a bridgehead on the west bank after crossing the river.

Russian forces spent months trying to cross the river, which also passes through Kupyansk, and Ukraine retook the city in a 2022 counteroffensive.

In addition, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that in the past 24 hours, the Russian military used its air force, drones, missiles and artillery to attack 139 military airports, personnel and vehicles in Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 60 of 94 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

The statement said 34 drones were “lost,” referring to Ukraine’s use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones.

The air force said debris from the falling drone damaged homes in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava areas, but no one was injured.

Drones wounded three people in the southern Kherson region on Sunday and Russian shelling damaged electrical equipment in the city, leaving around 23,000 homes without power, regional authorities said.

The target of the attack was the Dneprovsky region along the Dnieper River, which is part of the Kherson region and is regularly bombarded by Russian forces on the opposite bank.

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that about 50 settlements in the city of Kherson and surrounding areas have been shelled by Russian troops in the past 24 hours.

“The Russian military shelled social infrastructure and residential areas of settlements in the area, damaging in particular two multi-storey buildings and eight private residences,” Prokudin said on Telegram.

Russia’s appointed governor, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone struck a car in a Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, leaving a 76-year-old woman inside. A life was lost outside her home.

Zelensky appeals to allies

In a statement on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to honor all commitments to provide weapons to Ukraine, including weapons to counter Russian airstrikes.

Zelensky said that in the past week, the Russian army launched hundreds of attacks on Ukraine, using nearly 700 aerial bombs and more than 600 attack drones.

“The Russian war continues every week only because the Russian military retains the ability to intimidate Ukraine and exploit its air superiority,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app.

“The decisions taken at the NATO summit in Washington and those adopted at the Ramstein conference regarding Ukrainian air defense have not yet been fully implemented,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader said this week that he had discussed with partners and the United States the possibility of granting Ukraine a license to produce air defense systems and missiles.

oil spill task force

Meanwhile, an emergency team arrived in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region on Sunday, where an oil spill from two storm-hit tankers in the Kerch Strait was still spreading a month after it was first discovered, officials said. .

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on authorities to step up their response to the oil spill, calling it “one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years” before setting up a meeting that included Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kuron. Cove’s task force. “.

Kulenkov said the “most difficult situation” occurred near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, where fuel continued to leak into the sea from the damaged part of the Volgoneft-239 tanker.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kulenkov as saying that the remaining oil would be pumped from the stern of the tanker.

In response to Putin’s call for action, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Kheochy Tihey accused Russia of “starting to show so-called ‘concern’ only after the scale of the disaster became too obvious to conceal its dire consequences.” “.

“Russia once again proved its irresponsibility to the international community by first ignoring the problem, then admitting its inability to solve it, and finally leaving the entire Black Sea region to suffer the consequences alone,” Tikhey said on Friday.

The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping channel, providing access from the Azov Inland Sea to the Black Sea. The peninsula has also become a focus of conflict between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow annexed it in 2014.

In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Russia of trying to illegally seize control of the region. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.

Mikhailo Podoljak, an adviser in Zelensky’s office, described last month’s oil spill as a “massive environmental disaster” and called for further sanctions on Russian tankers.