{"id":369169,"date":"2025-08-24T06:56:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369169\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:56:17","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-russia-claims-capture-of-two-more-villages-in-push-towards-key-military-hub-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369169\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Russia claims capture of two more villages in push towards key military hub | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Russia says its forces have taken two villages in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region<\/strong>, increasing the military pressure amid struggling international efforts<\/a> to broker an end to the war. Moscow\u2019s forces captured the villages of Sredneye and Kleban-Byk along the 1,000km (620 mile) frontline in Donetsk, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram on Saturday. The taking of Kleban-Byk would mark a further advance towards Kostiantynivka \u2013 a key fortified town on the road to Kramatorsk, the location of a major Ukrainian logistics base. Russia said on Friday its troops had captured three villages in Donetsk. Ukraine\u2019s military did not acknowledge that any of the villages had changed hands. On Saturday, Ukrainian military officials said on Telegram its forces had stopped a Russian advance and recaptured the village of Zeleny Gai in Donetsk. The village was being subjected to new Russian attacks, a military statement said. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    South African president Cyril Ramaphosa added his voice to calls for a Russia-Ukraine summit <\/strong>during a phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>. \u201cPresident Ramaphosa stressed the urgency of holding bilateral and trilateral meetings between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and the United States as key to signal a firm commitment to ending the war,\u201d a statement from Ramaphosa\u2019s office said on Saturday. Zelenskyy said he told Ramaphosa he was ready for any kind of meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a>. \u201cHowever, we see that Moscow is once again trying to drag everything out even further,\u201d he posted on X. Ramaphosa spoke last Monday with Putin, whom he has called a \u201cdear ally\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The Pentagon has been blocking Ukraine from using US-made long-range missiles<\/a> to strike targets inside Russia<\/strong>, limiting Kyiv\u2019s ability to employ the weapons in its defence, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing US officials. The report could not immediately be verified. As the White House has sought to persuade Putin to meet Zelenskyy for peace talks, an approval process put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from using the army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to launch strikes deep into Russian territory, the WSJ reported<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russian air defences downed a drone headed for Moscow on Saturday and specialists were examining fragments on the ground<\/strong>, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. Several airports in central Russia suspended operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia\u2019s air transport agency said. Officials at the airport in St Petersburg, Russia\u2019s second-largest city, were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying dozens of flights had been delayed.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    France has summoned the Italian ambassador after Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini challenged French president Emmanuel Macron for suggesting European soldiers be deployed in Ukraine in a postwar settlement<\/strong>, Reuters reported a French diplomatic source as saying on Saturday. Asked during the week to comment on Macron\u2019s appeals to deploy European soldiers in Ukraine after any such deal with Russia, Salvini used a Milanese dialect phrase loosely translatable as \u201cget lost\u201d. \u201cYou go there if you want. Put your helmet on, your jacket, your rifle and you go to Ukraine,\u201d he told reporters, referring to Macron.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The family of a British aid volunteer reportedly killed in a drone strike in Ukraine have said they are \u201cvery disappointed\u201d by the response from authorities<\/a><\/strong>. Annie Lewis Marffy, 69, travelled from her home in Silverton in Devon, south-west England, in May to deliver a vehicle packed with supplies in a mission arranged by the non-profit Aid Ukraine UK. She was reportedly fatally injured in a Russian drone strike on 11 June, according to a police file, while Kramatorsk district police department said her body remained in an area of hostilities and could not be evacuated. Lewis Marffy\u2019s relatives have asked for a death certificate to be issued for the \u201cbrave, capable and determined\u201d mother-of-three. \u201cAll the family, the sisters and the sons, have been very disappointed at the reaction of the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] and the lack of response from the police,\u201d the relatives said, adding: \u201cThe family are desperate to get more information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Ukrainian flags will appear above Downing Street and several Whitehall buildings to mark 34 years since Ukraine left the Soviet Union<\/strong>, the British government said. The prime minister\u2019s official residence at No 10 Downing Street is among the buildings where a flag will fly on Sunday. A government spokesperson said: \u201cWe stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, including those who have made a second home here in the UK, in the face of continued Russian aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia says its forces have taken two villages in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region, increasing the military pressure amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-369169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115082440465228883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}