MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russia announced Sunday the capture of another eastern Ukrainian village, in the Donetsk region, as its forces advanced toward the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The defense ministry said in a briefing that its troops had captured the village of Kostyantynopil, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Russia-controlled city of Donetsk.
Russian troops have been advancing steadily in the Donetsk region and are now close to Dnipropetrovsk, which so far has been free of fighting. Kostyantynopil is around 13 kilometers from the regional border line.
The village was founded in the 18th century by Greek settlers from Crimea, who named it after the ancient city of Constantinople.
Meanwhile, Russian special forces crept miles through a major gas pipeline near the town of Sudzha in an attempt to surprise Ukrainian forces as part of a major offensive to eject Ukrainian soldiers from the western Russian region of Kursk, pro-Russian war bloggers said.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers seized about 1,300 square km of Russia’s Kursk region in August last year in what Kyiv said was an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations and to force Russia to shift forces from eastern Ukraine.
The recent suspension of U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine has critically weakened Kiev’s defense capabilities, leading to substantial casualties, territorial losses – particularly in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk Region – and plummeting morale, Time reported, citing Western and Ukrainian officials familiar with the situation.
One unnamed official claimed that the lack of U.S. intel directly resulted in “hundreds of dead Ukrainians”, adding that “the biggest problem is morale”, as Kiev is unable to effectively use some of its most powerful Western-supplied weapons.
According to Time, the abrupt halt in intelligence sharing has affected the Ukrainian foothold in the Russian border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky regards as a bargaining chip in potential peace talks with Russia. The magazine said, citing sources, that Russia has made swift advances in the area, aiming to cut off Ukrainian supply lines into the region.
According to Ukrainian media reports citing the Deep State monitoring website, Russian forces have nearly cut off Kiev’s foothold in Kursk Region from the border.