Russian forces have captured a village in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, marking their first territorial gain there since the 2022 invasion began, according to Russian state media.
State-owned news agency RIA Novosti cited Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian official in occupied Ukraine, who stated that Russian forces have captured the village of Dachnoye in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
“Our troops have advanced further in this direction and have already driven the enemy out of the village of Dachnoye. This is the first populated area in the Dnipropetrovsk region from which the enemy has been expelled,” Rogov said.
This claim has not been independently verified, and there has been no official confirmation from the Ukrainian government.
Earlier this month, Russian officials similarly claimed their forces had entered Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, but Ukrainian authorities said the assault was repelled.
The report comes as Russian forces continue to make territorial gains across Ukraine.
Over the past two months, Russian troops have reportedly captured 943 square kilometers of new territory, bringing the total under Moscow’s control to approximately 113,588 square kilometers, according to the Ukrainian Deep State mapping project.
These advances include a recent thrust into the Sumy region on Ukraine’s northern border, where Russia has reportedly carved out control over a 200-square-kilometer area.
Russia earlier expressed willingness to negotiate peace but insists that Ukraine must fully withdraw from territories largely under Russian control.
The territories currently recognized as under Russian control include the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014; over 99% of the Luhansk region; more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions—all located in the east or southeast—and smaller portions of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Ukraine maintains that it will not withdraw troops from the territories being controlled by Russia.
“It’s our land; we won’t pull our troops back from our territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Kyiv Independent. “This is a constitutional duty—for me, for our military. No ultimatums. No one will surrender their land, their people, their homes.”
