Russia's military said Friday that it captured three more villages in eastern Ukraine, where its forces continue to advance even as Kyiv mounts a major cross-border incursion into Russian territory.The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces gained control of towns and villages in Ukraine's partially occupiedDonetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.Among the settlements captured are Novozhelanne, which lies between the cities of Donetsk and Pokrovsk, Synkivka in the Kharkiv region and the small village of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk which shares its name with a larger city in the region that is under Ukrainian control.Moscow claims to have taken control of dozens of Ukrainian towns and villages in recent months,as Kyiv's forces find themselves outgunned and outmanned across the sprawling front line.Russia's military appears to be focusing its firepower on the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, where Ukraine says the fighting is intense and "difficult.""The most difficult situation remains in the area of Pokrovsk.
The enemy is trying to break through the defenses of our troops," Ukraine's top military commander Oleksandr Syrsky said Friday.He also said Kyiv's troops were continuing to press forward in Russia's southwestern Kursk region, where they claimed earlier this week to have taken control of 100 towns and villages near the border.