The Russian military on Sunday claimed to have captured a small village in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, while Kyiv forces insisted the village was “of no military importance”, AFP reported.

However, the statement illustrates increased pressure from Moscow’s forces on the front line in recent weeks. On Thursday, the Russian army already announced the capture of another town of Vesele in Donetsk region (east).

“The village of Krakhmalne in the Kharkiv region was liberated as a result of successful active actions by units of the Western Group of Forces in the Kupyansk region,” the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Defense of Russia on combat operations in Ukraine states.

This settlement, where about 45 people lived until February 24, 2022, is located 30 kilometers southeast of Kupyansk, which has been the target of attacks by Russian troops for months.

“Only five houses”

According to the spokesman of the Ukrainian ground forces, Volodymyr Fityo, in an interview with Ukrainian television on Sunday, this capture “has no strategic significance” on the front line.

“There are five houses. They were destroyed by the Russians,” he downplayed, assuring that the Ukrainian troops “have been moved to prepared reserve positions,” where they are “now holding the defense, preventing the enemy from continuing their offensive.”

Faced with these repeated attacks, Ukrainian authorities earlier this week ordered the evacuation of 26 towns in Kharkiv Oblast, where Kupyansk is located, affecting an estimated 3,000 people, including 279 children.

The entire area was occupied by Russia at the start of an assault in February 2022 on the orders of Vladimir Putin, until a lightning attack by Ukrainians liberated the region in September of that year, forcing Moscow’s forces into a humiliating retreat.

Russia resumed its offensive in this direction in the summer of 2023, while Ukraine attempted a major counteroffensive in the Donbass (east) and south without much success.

Starting from the fall and after the failure of Ukraine’s aggressive ambitions, Russian troops advanced in the northeast, in the area of ​​Kupyansk, but also in the east, especially around the town of Avdivka.

Kyiv, for its part, says it is holding on and inflicting heavy losses on the Russians, but also insists to Western allies that it needs weapons and ammunition to continue to hold on.