Moscow said Monday that its forces had captured two more frontline villages in eastern Ukraine, including one in the northeast Kharkiv region, where Kyiv managed to repel Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its soldiers "liberated the village of Kotlyarivka in the Kharkiv region" and "the village of Soloviove in the Donetsk People's Republic," referring to the self-proclaimed breakaway territory in eastern Ukraine.
Kotlyarivka lies about 20 kilometers from the embattled Ukrainian stronghold of Kupiansk in the northeast, an area that has seen intense shelling amid speculation Moscow could launch a major offensive there.
Soloviove, meanwhile, lies on the eastern front, not far from the village of Ocheretyne, which Moscow claimed to have captured on Sunday.
Kyiv has struggled to hold the front line in recent months as it faces severe ammunition shortages, mostly due to delays in U.S. military aid.
Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said late last month that Kyiv had pulled back from three villages in the eastern Donetsk region and was building a new line of fortifications amid fears of Russian advances.
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