By Dmitri Chirciu
MOSCOW (AA) – Russian forces continue to advance in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, with the Defense Ministry in Moscow claiming on Saturday that the Berestki settlement has been seized.
Units from Russia’s Center battlegroup advanced deep into Ukraine's defenses and “liberated” the Berestki settlement, according to a ministry statement.
Since Feb. 2022, the ministry claimed that Ukrainian losses included 649 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 37,380 drones, 586 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,698 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1,497 multiple launch rocket systems combat vehicles, 19,145 field artillery pieces and mortars, and 29,080 units of special military vehicles.
The announcement follows the ministry’s earlier statement that six settlements—five in Donetsk and one in Zaporizhzhia—have been brought under Russian control over the past week.
Russia has annexed Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions since it claimed to launch a "special military operation" in Feb. 2022.