File photo
Moscow:
Moscow said on Thursday it had captured another village in eastern Ukraine, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city of Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces last month.
It is the second village west of Avdievka that Moscow has claimed this week and has seen some recent battlefield successes due to a lack of ammunition in Kiev.
“Russian armed forces liberated the village of Tonank,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing, naming a small village with several streets along the river.
Russia captured Avdievka last month in one of the bloodiest battles of the two-year conflict, which Moscow said was a turning point.
The claims came as Russia launched a massive missile attack on Kiev earlier on Thursday, with Ukraine saying Moscow fired more than 30 missiles at its capital.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had used “high-precision weapons” including hypersonic “Dagger” missiles at the “command center” of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The attack came after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed that Moscow would respond to an escalation of Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s border regions.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces “continue to take measures to prevent the infiltration of sabotage and reconnaissance groups” into the Belgorod border region.
In recent days, Russia’s border region has been hit by increased Ukrainian shelling and an incursion by anti-Kremlin militants on the Kiev side.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
