Russian troops have captured a small village in Ukraine's southeast, its Defense Ministry said, an incremental advance that highlights the grinding gains Russian forces continue to make against Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian officials had no immediate comment on the Russian claim Sunday that it had taken Urozhayne, one of several settlements located along the Mokriy Yaly River west of the city of Donetsk.
The advance was one of several places along the roughly 1,200-kilometer front line where Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold back Russian troops.
The fiercest fighting at present is occurring near the former mining city of Toretsk, north of Donetsk, and Chasiv Yar, yet further to the north.
After Russia launched a localized offensive into the Kharkiv region in early May, Ukraine was forced to redeploy many of its more experienced units, to stabilize their defenses. But it also stretched Ukrainian units thin, leading to openings along the front line that Russia has sought to exploit.
Both Russian and Ukrainian troops are grappling with soaring summer temperatures, which are making life miserable in many Ukrainian cities suffering from regular power outages.
Large parts of Ukraine's electricity grid have been damaged by Russian missiles, and there are concerns the grid could collapse entirely by the winter.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, reacted angrily to news that the United States was planning to deploy long-range weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, in Germany beginning in 2026. The decision marks a return of U.S. cruise missiles to Germany after a 20-year absence.
The White House made the announcement on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington last week.
"We have enough capacity to contain these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television.
"Europe is coming apart. Europe is not living its best moment. In a different configuration, a repeat of history is inevitable," he said.
Russian and U.S. defense chiefs spoke by phone on Friday, in what was described as an effort to lower the risk of "possible escalation."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said further military aid was on its way to the country after a series of meetings with world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington.
"Following my visit to the United States, we have secured new Patriot systems and dozens of other air defense systems. We are working tirelessly to increase the strength and number of Ukrainian Patriots," he wrote on social media platform X.
"The Ukrainian Compact, approved at the NATO Summit in Washington, focuses on weapons for our soldiers, the work of defense companies in and with Ukraine, and support for our recovery – all concrete and genuinely supportive of our defense."
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse.
