Russia says its forces advance in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region

Russian forces have advanced in the east of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, taking the village of Novoheorhiivka close to the Donetsk region, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Russian forces said in July that they had taken their first village in Dnipropetrovsk, and U.S. estimates of the battlefield indicate Russian forces control less than 1% of the region.

Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed as its own territory.


"Soldiers of the 57th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade pushed out the enemy from Novoheorhiivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region," Russia's defence ministry said. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.

Russia controls nearly 114,500 square km (44,600 square miles) or 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and a major chunk of territory in the east and southeast of the country, according to open source maps of the battlefield.

Russia's defence ministry also said its forces had hit port infrastructure used to supply fuel to Ukrainian forces and a plant used to assemble drones.

The statement didn't name the port. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that Russia had struck a gas distribution station in the southern region of Odesa.

Russia's defence ministry also said that its forces had captured the settlements of Pankivka and Sukhetse in eastern Ukraine.