LIVE – War in Ukraine: the Russian army claims the capture of two villages in the east

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Saturday the capture of two new villages in eastern Ukraine, where its troops are advancing rapidly, according to a press release.

The forces “liberated” the large village of Kurakhivka, close to the industrial town of Kurakhove, in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia is seeking to take, the ministry said. It also claimed the capture of the small village of Pershotravneve in the Kharkiv region, close to the eastern Lugansk region.

This Saturday morning, on X, Volodymyr Zelensky announces that several neighborhoods in kyiv have been hit by Russian drone attacks. Localities in the Poltava, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions were also affected.

The Ukrainian president indicates that “it is urgent to put pressure on limiting Russia’s capacity to produce” Shahed drones. “Unfortunately, terrorists know how to take advantage of the time given to them by the indecision of the free world,” he also denounces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused his allies of passivity in the face of the mobilization of North Korean soldiers in Russia, demanding again to be able to use long-range weapons instead of “waiting for the North Korean army to begin to hit the Ukrainians.

“Now we see all the sites where Russia is gathering these North Korean soldiers on its territory, all their camps. We could strike preemptively, if we had the ability to strike far enough,” Zelensky said in his daily address, accusing its allies of “just waiting for the North Korean army to start hitting the Ukrainians” instead of providing long-range weapons “which it badly needs.”

Hello everyone and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the war in Ukraine.