Russian forces have taken control of their first settlement in the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine.
According to Russian official media and war bloggers, Russian forces have taken control of their first settlement in the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, signalling a new development in the conflict.
Neither the Russian Defence Ministry nor Ukrainian officials have immediately confirmed the story.
Moscow’s soldiers have reportedly made tremendous progress in recent months, taking control of about 950 square kilometres of Ukrainian land in the last 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 stated that while it is open to a peace agreement, Ukraine must leave all four of the areas it mostly controls, which President Vladimir Putin claims are now officially part of Russia.
According to Ukraine and its European supporters, those terms amount to surrender, Russia has no interest in peace, and they will never allow Russia to take control of a fifth of Ukraine.
Crimea, more than 99 percent of the Luhansk region, more than 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions—all in the east or southeast—as well as pieces of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions are among the territories that are under Russian control.
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.
