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Russian forces have reportedly seized their first village in Ukraine‘s east-central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Russian state media and war bloggers, marking a new advance in the ongoing conflict.
There has been no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or the Russian Defence Ministry regarding the claim.
This reported advance comes as Moscow‘s forces have gained significant ground in recent months, seizing approximately 950 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory over the past two months.
This includes a 200 square kilometre chunk of the Sumy region and an earlier entry into Dnipropetrovsk last month, even as both sides discuss potential peace.
Russia‘s state RIA news agency quoted pro-Russian official Vladimir Rogov as stating that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye, located just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. The claim remains unverified by independent sources.
The authoritative Ukrainian Deep State map indicates that Russia now controls 113,588 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, reflecting an increase of 943 square kilometres in the two months leading up to June 28.
Russia has said it is willing to make peace but that Ukraine must withdraw from the entirety of four regions which Russia mostly controls and which President Vladimir Putin says are now legally part of Russia.
Ukraine and its European backers say those terms are tantamount to capitulation and that Russia is not interested in peace and that they will never accept Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine.
The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, over 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff has claimed Russian forces have suffered more than one million casualties since its invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Firefighter battling a blaze at a house in Samar in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast hit by Russian strikes on 24 June (DSNS Ukraine)
The update came after Russia reportedly lost 1,070 troops in the past day alone, it added.
Alongside personnel, Russia has also lost: 10,980 tanks, 22,922 fighting vehicles, 53,593 vehicles and fuel tanks, 29,718 artillery systems, 3,436 cruise missiles, 42,796 drones, 1,427 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,190 air defense systems, 420 airplanes, 340 helicopters, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
Russia suffers heavy daily losses amid its strategy of sending vast numbers of troops towards a heavily fortified Ukrainian frontline in an attempt to overpower it.