Russia says its forces have captured a village in eastern Ukraine

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces have captured a small village in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, as Moscow's forces build on their progress in the area.

The ministry, writing on Telegram on Thursday, said Russian forces were now in control of Pobeda, about 20 kilometres south-west of the regional capital Donetsk.

Ukrainian military bloggers also reported on the Russian advance on Pobeda, which before the war had a population of only a few dozen people.

Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for almost two years. After a failed counter-offensive last summer, the battlefield momentum has swung to the Russian side. Moscow controls almost 20% of Ukraine's territory, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which it annexed back in 2014.

Earlier, Ukrainian missile strikes killed up to 60 Russian soldiers as they conducted training exercises in a Russian-occupied area of the Kherson region, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman said.

Natalia Gumenyuk, a spokeswoman for the Southern Command, told Kiev city television that "up to 60 occupiers" were "unable to return to their fighting positions."

She added that strikes had hit during exercises by Russian military assault groups in the southern Ukrainian region.

Gumenyuk would not comment on the weapon system used.

The BBC's Russian Service, citing sources familiar with situation, reported on Wednesday that over 60 soldiers had been killed on Tuesday. But it reported the incident took place on a training ground in the occupied part of the eastern Donetsk region, rather than in the south. The sources said the missiles were fired from a US-made HIMARS launch system.

Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for almost two years with Western help, including the advanced HIMARS rocket launchers.

Kaynak: DPA