News - World: Russian troops have seized another village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the Russian army says, while Kiev claims that its forces are further advancing in Russia’s Kursk region.

In a statement on Thursday, Russia’s defense ministry said that its troops had seized the village of Mezhove, situated between Avdiivka, taken in February, and the logistics center of Pokrovsk, toward which Russian forces are advancing.

The ministry stressed that capturing the village, which is the latest in a string of territorial advances for Moscow’s troops, was the “result of successful operations.”

Moscow continues its offensive in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which was added to the Russian Federation in late September 2022 following a referendum, while also fending off a Ukrainian counter-attack in the Kursk border region.

One of the aims of the bold and unexpected offensive by Ukraine inside Russia on August 6, which resulted in territory being seized in the Kursk region, is believed to be pressuring Moscow to reallocate some of its forces from the eastern campaign.

Due to manpower and ammunition shortages throughout much of 2024, Ukraine has been forced onto the defensive in the industrial eastern region after months of stalemate.

In recent weeks, Russia's defense ministry has claimed that it has taken control of new settlements in the area almost daily.

Separately on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was attempting to target Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant, which is around 50 kilometers from the fighting in the border region, in a nighttime attack.

He said Moscow has already notified the United Nations’ nuclear safety watchdog about the incident.

“The enemy tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed,” Putin said in a televised meeting of senior officials, without giving further details.

An IAEA spokesperson told AFP earlier on Thursday that the UN agency chief Rafael Grossi plans to visit the Kursk nuclear plant next week.

The West has loaded Ukrainian armed forces with an overwhelming supply of Western weapons and ammunition since Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow has time and again warned that such all-out military support of Kiev will only prolong the war.

Source: Press TV