Moscow's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Russian troops have established control over two additional settlements in Ukraine - Sopych in the northern Sumy region and Kalenyky in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry published the statement on the Telegram messaging platform.
The ministry's announcement came a day after Moscow and Kyiv issued contradictory statements about which side was making gains along the roughly 1,250 km (775 mile) frontline in the four-year-old conflict. In its post, the Russian ministry said: "The armed forces of the Russian Federation liberated the settlement of Kalenyky in (Donetsk) as well as establishing control over the settlement of Sopych in Sumy region."
General Valery Gerasimov, in an assessment of Russian operations on Monday, reported that his forces were continuing to create buffer zones in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. He additionally said Russian troops were "actively moving towards Sloviansk," a city in Donetsk region that Ukrainian forces have heavily defended.
Sopych lies on the border with Russia in the Sumy region, an area where Russian forces have for months sought to establish a presence, according to the ministry statement. Kalenyky is located east of Sloviansk in Donetsk.
Coverage from Ukraine's public broadcaster, Suspilne, last week quoted the former head of the country's foreign intelligence service as saying that Russian troops had entered Kalenyky and forcibly taken 19 residents into Russian territory. The report attributed the claim to the former intelligence chief; the Russian Defence Ministry's announcement on Tuesday reiterated the capture of Kalenyky but did not include details on civilian movements.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kyiv's forces had disrupted a planned Russian offensive, adding that the intensity of attacks was "not what Russia had planned and what its command promised to Russia's political leadership." The president's remarks suggest Kyiv assessed operations on the frontline differently from Moscow's public statements.
In its latest operational summary, Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units intercepted 35 Ukrainian drones between 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (1000-1700 GMT), saying most of the interceptions occurred over the Krasnodar region on Russia's eastern border.
The situation on the ground remains contested by both sides. Russian statements assert territorial gains and continued efforts to expand buffer zones, while Ukrainian officials point to successful defensive actions and disruption of at least some planned Russian operations. Independent verification of the Russian ministry's claims was not provided in the ministry post.