Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov visited Moscow’s troops in Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s forces seized a dozen eastern villages in February, the defence ministry said on Sunday.
Gerasimov’s visit comes days before US-mediated talks with Kyiv in Geneva on ending almost four years of war and ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine.
“In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task force liberated 12 settlements,” Gerasimov said.
Agence France-Presse could not independently verify these claims.
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The pace of Moscow’s advance picked up in the autumn, but Russia has not reached its goal to seize the Donetsk region in four years of war.
Russia demands that Kyiv withdraw from the Donetsk region for any deal to end the conflict, terms unacceptable to Ukraine.