KYIV (AFP/Reuters) – Russia said on Saturday it had captured a village flanking the eastern flashpoint city of Toretsk in Ukraine, while Kyiv said eleven people had died in Russian attacks overnight.
The Russian defense ministry said its troops seized the village of Krymske in the northeastern suburbs of Toretsk, which is located in the eastern Donetsk region and has been the scene of intense fighting in recent months.
The Russian army is slowly but steadily advancing in Donetsk, despite heavy human and material losses.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian troops in the region said there were intense battles in urban areas of Toretsk and Chasiv Yar, a strategic hilltop military hub on the front line.
Russian forces have been fighting in the center of the two contested cities for the past two months, according to DeepState, a group of Ukrainian military analysts.
Overnight, at eleven eight people died in Russian strikes on central and eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities had issued air raid alerts for the entire country just before 7:00 am (0500 GMT) on Saturday, warning of missile and drone threats in several regions.
In Kharkiv, a Russian drone shot down by air defence fell on a residential area, killing a woman and injuring four other people, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram.
Russia also launched an air strike on a border municipality in the northeastern Sumy region, killing three police officers, the regional administration said.
Separate Russian attacks on the southern Kherson region killed two people, police said.
The Russian defense ministry said its overnight strikes had hit gas and energy infrastructure that supply Ukraine’s “military-industrial complexes”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed his country needed more weapons.
U.S. President Donald Trump said during his election campaign he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office on January 20.
He has been critical of the amount Washington has spent arming Ukraine and has also threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia.
The United States also wants Ukraine to hold elections, potentially by the end of the year, especially if Kyiv can agree a truce with Russia in the coming months, Trump’s top Ukraine official told Reuters.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said in an interview that Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections, suspended during the war with Russia, “need to be done”.