Russia claims control of key town in eastern Ukraine

The Russian army has said that it had captured a town in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow's forces are advancing on the strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Russian forces have "liberated the locality of Novohrodivka" in the Donetsk region, some 20 kilometres from Pokrovsk city, the defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The town had more than 14,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian offensive in February 2022, according to official statistics.

Moscow has advanced strongly this summer and its troops are now closing in on the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Despite a surprise cross-border attack launched by Kiev on August 6 in the Kursk region, Moscow continues to steadily gain ground in Donetsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area - which includes Donetsk - and claimed that Ukraine's Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.

On the other hand, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed former arms production minister Oleksandr Kamyshin as an external adviser for strategic issues, a decree published on the presidential website said.

Kamyshin, who was the minister for strategic industries, resigned last week as a part of a Ukrainian government shake-up at a critical juncture in the war with Russia.