Russia claims more battlefield victories in Ukraine war
- 3 June, 10:54
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has said that the country’s armed forces are advancing on all fronts in Ukraine and have captured around 880 square kilometers of territory this year alone.
"The advance is underway in all tactical areas. In general, 880 square kilometers of territory have come under the control of the Russian army this year," Minister Belousov said while addressing the meeting of the Moscow-led CSTO security alliance in Almaty on Friday.
Russian forces have also pushed Ukraine eight to nine kilometers back in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where they poured across the border on May 10 in a surprise land offensive, the minister stated.
In the latest of these battlefield victories, Russia captured Umanskoye settlement in Ukraine’s Russian-held eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry stated on Sunday. The tiny village 25 kilometers to the northwest of Donetsk was home to 180 residents before the start of the war in February 2022. "Units of Battlegroup Center carried out successful operations, liberating the settlement of Umanskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The forces of the 23rd and 24th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 109th Territorial Defense Brigade were defeated near Novgorodskoye, Yevgenovka, Rozovka and Novosyolovka Pervaya in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry’s statement reads.
In its briefing on Sunday, the Defence Ministry also reported the downing of two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft over the past day. In addition, the Defence Ministry reported that fifty unmanned aerial vehicles, 23 US-made HIMARS rockets, two Tochka U missiles, three French-made Hammer guided air bombs and a Neptune anti-ship missile “were wiped out," in the past day.
