Russian forces have captured two new villages along the 1000-km-long battle line in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine, said the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Russian forces are moving along the battle line in a synchronised and coordinated manner to capture as much land as possible in order to use it as leverage in the upcoming trilateral talks between Trump, Putin and Zelensky.
Reports earlier said that the Russian president also ordered a fresh offensive into Ukraine and told his forces to seize more territory in the strategically important north-eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions. The Russian Ministry of Defence, on Friday, announced the capture of three more villages in its slow advances across the region.
While Ukrainian forces have not yet confirmed whether any villages have come under Russian control, the Russian forces on Sunday morning were seen taking control of the captured villages.
Since their failure of the summer 2022 offensive to seize control of the Ukrainian capital, the Russian forces quickly shifted their focus to the mineral-rich and fertile lands of the Donbas region in the east, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
On Saturday, the Russian forces announced that they had captured two more villages, Kleban-Byk, northwest of the town of Toretsk, which has been under attack for months, and Seredne, closer to the administrative border of the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Two of the villages described as captured on Friday -- Katerynivka and Rusyn Yar -- are located near another beleaguered city, Kostiantynivka. Putin has expressed hope to end the conflict with a long-lasting and what he sees as meaningful resolution of the Ukraine crisis.
His demands for peace are clear: Ukraine giving up aspirations of joining NATO and continuing to act like a buffer state between Russia and the US-backed NATO, Denazification of Ukraine, and ceding Russian-speaking Crimea liberated by Moscow in 2014.
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