Russia claims its forces have seized the village of Berezivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, marking a potential shift in the ongoing conflict.
Ukrainian officials have yet to respond to the claim.
This development comes amid Russia’s persistent, year-long campaign along the eastern front. Moscow’s larger army has been steadily pressuring Ukrainian forces, who are facing shortages in manpower and resources, as the war nears its fourth year.
While Berezivka is a small settlement, its capture could signify a broader Russian advance across the Donetsk region. This offensive, though costly for Russia in terms of troops and equipment, has yielded territorial gains. Russian tactics involve overwhelming settlements with aerial bombardments and artillery fire, followed by infantry assaults on vulnerable Ukrainian positions.
Russia’s objective remains control of the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which together form Ukraine’s industrial heartland, the Donbas. Ukraine’s recent setbacks in the east coincide with uncertainty surrounding continued US military aid, a crucial factor in Kyiv’s defense.
US president Donald Trump, who says he is making American interests his priority, this week said he would likely meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin soon to negotiate a peace deal over Ukraine.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that Europe cannot rule out the possibility that “American might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it” and that the time has come for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”.
In other developments, radiation levels at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant - site of the world’s worst nuclear accident - did not increase on Saturday, a day after a drone armed with a warhead hit the protective outer shell of the shuttered plant in the Kyiv region, according to Ukraine’s State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday that the strike, which punched a hole in the structure and briefly started a fire, did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that 40 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Saturday in four regions of western and south-western Russia. No casualties were reported.
Moscow sent 70 drones into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s air force, 33 drones were destroyed and 37 others were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
