Russia says took new village in Ukraine's Donetsk region

MOSCOW

Russia said on Sunday it took another village in the west of Ukraine's Donetsk region, as its troops advance towards the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow's offensive on Ukraine has lasted for more than three years, with attacks intensifying this summer and U.S.-led negotiations so far yielding no results to end the fighting.

Russia's defence ministry said Russian troops had captured the village of Myrne, calling the village by its Soviet name "Karl Marx."

It lies close to the administrative border between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The ministry claimed forces had moved "deep into the enemy's defence" to take the village.

Myrne was one of two villages Moscow claimed yesterday.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pyongyang state media said yesterday.

Lavrov's visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia's offensive against Kiev.

Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and has also provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles.

Lavrov expressed "sincere gratitude to Pyongyang" for its role in Kursk and support of Russia's operation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said Lavrov's talks with Kim were held in a "warm comradely atmosphere."

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.

North Korea only confirmed it had deployed troops to support Russia's war in April, and admitted its soldiers had been killed in combat.

Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's security agency said yesterday it tracked down and killed Russian agents suspected of shooting one of its senior officers to death in the Ukrainian capital.

The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, said in a statement that the suspected Russian agents were killed in the Kyiv region after they offered resistance to arrest. A video released by the agency showed two bodies lying on the ground.

The agency said earlier that a man and a woman were suspected to be involved in the July 10 assassination of Ivan Voronych, an SBU colonel, in a bold daylight attack that was caught on surveillance cameras.

Media reports claimed that Voronych was involved in covert operations in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine and reportedly helped organize Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region last year.