Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, takes control of town

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Artillerymen fire a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine near Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. /Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters

Russia said on Sunday its forces had taken control of a town in eastern Ukraine as it seeks to pierce the Ukrainian defensive front lines.

Novohrodivka is an important rail and road hub for Ukrainian forces in the area, with a population of 14,000 before Russia's military campaign.

Russian forces, which have controlled about a fifth of Ukraine since February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take the whole of the Donbas. Russia currently controls about 80 percent of the region.

Overnight attacks

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of overnight air attacks on their border regions, with Ukrainian officials saying that two people died and four were injured in the Sumy region and Russia saying three civilians were injured in Belgorod.

A firefighter works at a site of residential building damaged by a Russian air strike in Sumy. /State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Two children were among those injured in Sumy, the region's officials reported, along with several residential houses and cars damaged.

Across the border, in Russia's southwestern region of Belgorod, three civilians, including two children were injured in Ukraine's air attack, according to the governor of the region.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said two residential buildings were destroyed and more than 15 buildings in total were damaged.

Kursk operation continues

In a boost to Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said last week that a Ukrainian incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed to slow Russia's own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kyiv's defenses along the front line. Its forces are currently working to advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk.

Ukraine's top military commander however said that Kyiv's incursion into the Kursk region was working and that there had been no recent Russian advances on Pokrovsk. He said that one of the objectives of the Kursk incursion was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the Kursk operation was also to prevent Russian forces from crossing the border in the opposite direction.