MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian forces have taken control of two more settlements in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday, the latest in a series of reported gains. in its continuous advance to the west.

The ministry’s statement said Russian forces now control Petropavlivka, a village between the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, centers of fighting in recent months in the area.

It also noted the capture of Vremivka, one of a cluster of small towns in the south of the Donetsk region.

The ministry also said that Russian forces hit Ukrainian military facilities with high-precision weapons in response to a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s southern Belgorod region using ATACMS missiles. made in the US.

Reuters cannot independently verify combat reports from either side of the 34-month conflict.

Ukrainian military statements did not mention either of the two villages changing hands, but referred to heavy fighting near the key city of Pokrovsk.

The popular Deep State blog in Ukraine, which documents changes in the positions held by both sides using open source materials, puts Petropavlivka and Vremivka in Russian hands.

The spokesman for the Khortytsya of the Ukrainian military, or eastern, group of forces dismissed on the second day running any idea that Russian forces entered Pokrovsk.

“There are no developments in Pokrovsk, things are stable,” Viktor Trehubov told national television. “The enemy is not there.”

The city is a transportation hub and site of Ukraine’s only coking coal pit, where work was suspended this week.

The Russian military, after failing to advance on the capital Kyiv in the weeks following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has since focused its efforts on capturing all of the Donbas – made up of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

It now holds about 20% of the territory of Ukraine.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian military, in an evening report, said that Russian forces trying to penetrate the defenses of Ukraine launched 84 attacks in the Pokrovsk sector. Fourteen wars were going on in that area.

The report listed a series of villages in the sector it said came under Russian attack — including three that the Russian military said it secured last week and another that Russia says it controls last month.