Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it captured the town of Krasnohorivka in eastern Ukraine, as well as three villages in different parts of the Donetsk region.The Russian military said its troops "liberated" the town and the villages of Hryhorivkа, Halytsynivka and Vodyane. Krasnohorivka, which had a pre-war population of 16,000, is in an area where the front line has remained relatively unchanged for weeks.

The town lies some 20 kilometers (32 miles) west of Russian-held Donetsk and had served as a key stronghold for Kyiv.It became more vulnerable after the fall of nearby Marinka in December 2023 and Avdiivka in February.Russian troops have been advancing steadily in the Donetsk region in recent weeks and are closing in on the town of Pokrovsk, a vital logistics and transport hub for Ukrainian forces.Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that seizing the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial heartland which includes the Donetsk region, was Russia's "primary objective."Amid Moscow's creeping advance in the east, Ukraine last month launched an offensive into Russia's Kursk region, saying it had seized hundreds of square kilometers.

Kyiv said one of its objectives with the incursion is to force Russia to redirect its troops from eastern Ukraine.