A local resident rides a bicycle near a destroyed bridge, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pokrovsk, near a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian troops have captured the village of Kostiantynopolske in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday (December 21, 2024).

Reuters could not independently confirm the report about the village, called Ostrovsky by Russia.

The settlement lies 10 km southwest of Kurakhove, which Russian troops have stormed and are threatening to encircle, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group mapping the fighting.

Meanwhile, Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia on Saturday morning with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 1,000 km from the front line.

The press service of Tatarstan’s governor, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that eight drones attacked the city. Six hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and one was shot down over a river, the statement said.

A video posted on local Telegram news channel Astra, verified by The Associated Press, shows a drone flying into the upper floors of a high-rise building.

Local authorities said there were no casualties. Flights were halted at Kazan’s airport and all mass gatherings cancelled on Saturday and Sunday.

The attacks, which Ukraine didn’t acknowledge in keeping with its security policy, comes after a Ukrainian attack Friday on a town in Russia’s Kursk border region using U.S.-supplied missiles killed six people, including a child.

Moscow sent 113 drones into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 57 drones were shot down during the attacks. A further 56 drones were “lost,” likely having been electronically jammed.

The governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said eight persons were wounded on Friday night in drone attacks on the regional capital, also called Kharkiv.

Russian army has been making advances in the region since recent weeks. (Representational image)

Night attack on Russian positions. Ukrainian infantry on the zero line of the front in prepared trenches 100 meters from the Russian trenches on July 5, 2025 in the direction of Toretsk region, Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Russia on July 6 said its forces had captured a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, as Moscow continues to advance slowly across the battlefield.

The Defence Ministry said its troops “liberated the village of Sokil”, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Donetsk city, the capital of the region by the same name that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022.

Also read | Russia says captured district of key Ukraine town of Chasiv Yar

Kyiv says the fiercest fighting across the entire front line is taking place in the Donetsk region, where Russian troops are trying to eject Ukraine’s forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated his demand for Ukraine to totally withdraw from the region, along with three others in the south and east of the country, if it wants peace.

Moscow’s forces have made modest advances on the battlefield this year, pushing against Kyiv’s exhausted, outmanned and outgunned troops.

A view shows residential buildings heavily damaged during a Russian military attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Toretsk, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS

Three people were killed and five wounded by Russian shelling in Ulakly village in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on Saturday.

The village was hit by cluster munitions, he said on the Telegram messaging app. Mr. Filashkin said administrative buildings, a private house, a shop and eight cars were damaged.

This grab taken from video released by the head of the Russian-controlled Donetsk region Denis Pushilin’s telegram channel on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, shows damaged buildings, after Russian forces completed their takeover of Avdiivka, eastern Ukraine. Russian-controlled Donetsk region.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russia said on Sunday that its forces had taken more advantageous positions near Avdiivka and Donetsk after President Vladimir Putin ordered the military to push further into Ukraine after two years of full-scale war.

Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had pushed back Ukrainian forces near Klishchiivka, Dyleyevka and Kurdiumivka in the Donetsk region and taken better positions near Avdiivka which fell to Russia earlier this month.

“In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern grouping of troops improved the situation along the front line and defeated formations of the 22nd, 28th and 92nd mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Klishchiivka, Dyleyevka and Kurdiumivka,” it said.

A man looks at a crater formed by recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict near a restaurant building in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, February 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS

“In the Avdiivka direction, units of the Centre group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, and also defeated manpower and equipment of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 107th Air Defence Brigade.”

The ministry said Russian troops had repelled seven Ukrainian counter-attacks in the area. A total of 77 Ukrainian drones were destroyed, the ministry said.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield accounts from either side in the war.

Mr. Putin said on Tuesday Russian troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.

Mr. Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

Along the 1,000 km (600-mile) front line, Russian troops are dug in behind deep mine fields patrolled by drones and guarded by heavy artillery.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of territory internationally recognised to be Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he will not rest until every last Russian soldier is ejected.

Russia says the territory its forces control is part of Russia and that it will never be given up. The West has committed about 250 billion euros ($271 billion) worth of aid to Ukraine in an attempt to defeat Russian forces.