WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces capture village of Memryk in east, Ukraine says troops holding firm

Russian forces pressed on with their advance on the eastern front in their 2-1/2-year-old war against Ukraine, capturing the village of Memryk, east of the city of Pokrovsk, the Defence Ministry said.

Ukraine made no mention in accounts by the military's General Staff of the village, lying in the front's most hotly contested sector. But the country's war blogs reported it had passed into Russian hands last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv's forces were holding their own in Donetsk region.

Reuters could not independently verify accounts from either side.

Russian forces, in a slow advance through Donetsk region, have in recent weeks moved towards the town of Pokrovsk.

Moscow's defence ministry noted the capture of Memryk in one of its daily reports and said Russian forces had inflicted losses on Ukrainian troops in at least two other nearby villages and repelled eight enemy attacks in Donetsk region.

On Sunday, the ministry announced the capture of another village, Novohrodivka, which a Ukrainian officer said had been abandoned by Kyiv's forces several days earlier.

In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said troops in Donetsk region were "completing their tasks in truly steadfast fashion, repelling Russian assaults and reclaiming our positions".

"It is equally important to destroy as many occupying forces as possible. The Pokrovsk sector, the Kurakhove sector, it is here that the Russian army must lose as much combat capability as possible."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, also reported on action in northeast Kharkiv region and on Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched last month.

Ukrainian forces, he said, were "getting Russia used to a clear understanding of where its land is and where its neighbour's land is".

Authorities in Sumy region, across the border from Kursk, announced the obligatory evacuation of three more settlements in areas long subject to Russian attacks.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has sustained massive losses in Kursk Region – Moscow

Ukraine has lost around 11,400 troops since it launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region last month, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Monday.

The Russian military has also destroyed over 1,000 units of Ukrainian military hardware, including 89 tanks, 42 infantry fighting vehicles, 74 armored personnel carriers, 635 armored combat vehicles, 371 cars, 85 artillery pieces, and 24 multiple rocket launchers, seven of which were US-made HIMARS systems, the ministry claimed in its latest daily update.

In the course of the last 24 hours alone, Ukraine has lost up to 240 servicemen and 13 units of hardware, the ministry estimated.

During the past day, Russian ground forces, supported by artillery and aviation, have repelled three Ukrainian attacks near the settlements of Mikhailovka, Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Desyatoye Octyabrya, the statement read.

Kiev’s troops also tried to advance towards the villages of Malaya Loknya, Korenevo, Kremyanoye and Martynovka, but were pushed back, it added.

“Reconnaissance and search operations in forested areas to track down and destroy enemy sabotage groups, who are attempting to penetrate deeper into Russian territory, are continuing,” the Defense Ministry said.

According to the statement, Russian troops, artillery, and aviation pummeled Ukrainian positions in more than a dozen locations in Kursk Region. Air and missile strikes were also carried out against military concentrations and foreign mercenaries in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, which borders Russia, the ministry stated.

Ukrainian forces invaded Kursk Region on August 6, in the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the start of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Their advance was quickly halted by the Russian army, but fighting in the region continues, with Kiev’s troops still holding a number of settlements in the border area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that liberating Kursk Region is “a sacred duty”of the Russian military. According to Putin, by targeting the region, Ukraine wanted to make Moscow “nervous” and force it to re-deploy units from other key sectors of the front line.

Reuters/RT