Russia says captured two villages in east Ukraine

MOSCOW:

Russia said Sunday its forces had captured two frontline villages in Ukraine, Andriivka in the eastern Lugansk region and Pishchane in the northeast Kharkiv region.

Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky welcomed the arrival of a Patriot air-defence system from Germany, as both sides announced more deaths from missile strikes.

Earlier Sunday, Russia said it had scrambled fighter jets to prevent two US strategic bombers from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The two villages Russia claims to have taken are less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from each other on a section of the frontline where Moscow has made grinding advances in recent weeks.

Russian army units “liberated” the settlements of Andriivka and Pishchane “as well as occupied more favourable lines and positions,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Andriivka, a village of less than 20 people, was one of the last settlements in the eastern Lugansk region that Kyiv still controlled and had been a key target for Moscow.