Russia said Thursday it had captured the village of Andriivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Kyiv’s forces are suffering manpower and ammunition shortages and struggling to hold off Russian attacks.
“Units of the Southern grouping of troops liberated the settlement of Andriivka in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
The Telegraph could not immediately verify the claim.
According to the crowd-sourced DeepState monitoring service, Russian forces have advanced near Chasiv Yar and in Klishchiivka and Krasnohorivka in Donetsk.
Kyrylo Sazonov, a soldier of the 41st Separate Mechanised Brigade deployed in the area, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty today that Russian troops are trying to advance near Chasiv Yar, but they have not entered the town.
Russian soldiers have tactical advances, which means that once they capture a position, they can be knocked out of it “at any minute,” Sazonov is quoted as saying in the Kyiv Independent.
“These advances of 50 metres forward, 50 metres back mean nothing. We also enter their territory, and they enter ours,” he said.
“It is really important for us that they (Russia) do not enter the town. They have already said several times that they are in Chasiv Yar, that it is surrounded. We are preventing them from entering the town. In the town, their numerical superiority will be much more noticeable than it is now.”