MOSCOW

Russia on Tuesday said its forces had captured the settlement of Yasenove in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

According to the Defense Ministry, the village came under Russian control following an operation by the Tsentr (Center) group of forces.

The ministry added that Russian troops continued their offensive, making rapid advances in certain areas.

It also said that forces launched a coordinated strike overnight using precision weapons and drones, targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure that supplies military industry enterprises.

Ukraine responded with a large-scale drone attack, but Russian forces shot down 128 unmanned aerial vehicles overnight, along with three French-made Hammer guided bombs and US-made HIMARS rockets, the ministry claimed.

Since the start of the conflict three years ago, Russia says it has destroyed 653 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 42,979 drones, 592 air defense systems, 21,287 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1,514 multiple rocket launchers, 21,495 artillery and mortars, and 31,459 military transport vehicles.

Ukraine has not commented on the reported capture of Yasenove but said its forces intercepted many Russian drones overnight.


According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russian forces launched 124 Shahed-type attack drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles from multiple locations, including Millerovo, Orel, Bryansk, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia.


It said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 57 of the drones across various regions, including Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa.


Additionally, 64 Russian decoy drones reportedly failed to reach their intended targets and were lost. The attacks caused damage in Poltava, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Cherkasy regions, according to Ukrainian authorities.


Independent verification of claims remains difficult due to the ongoing conflict.