Russia's military said Wednesday that it captured two villages close to Dobropillia, a former coal mining town in eastern Ukraine that remains under the Ukrainian army's control.
"The settlements of Suvorovo and Nikanorivka in the Donetsk People's Republic have been liberated," Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement, referring to the partially occupied Donetsk region.
The villages are both around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Dobropillia.
Russia has made a swift advance in the area in recent days, piercing through Ukrainian defenses ahead of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The Russian army's reported battlefield gains on Tuesday were the largest for a single 24-hour period in over a year, according to an AFP analysis of data from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.
Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of families with children from Dobropillia last month. The town, which had a pre-war population of around 28,000, is now under constant Russian drone and artillery fire.
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