Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine said on Monday they had taken a village beside the main southern road towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, over which Russian and Ukrainian forces have been fighting for weeks.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have suffered significant losses in the battle for Sievierodonetsk, which is in one of the two self-proclaimed breakaway regions Russia says it launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February to defend.
Vitaly Kiselev, an assistant to the self-styled interior minister of the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), was quoted by TASS new agency as saying the village of Toshkivka, about 25 km south of Sievierodonetsk, had been taken.