Russia continues Donetsk advance, takes another village

After months of steady advances, Russia says that it has captured a village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region near the strategic town of Kurakhove, as its forces also continue their push to reclaim territory in the Kursk region.

Its defence ministry claimed that, on the 1,000th day of Moscow's war of aggression, troops had taken Novoselidovka, whose Ukrainian name is Novoselydivka.

The Russian army is now rapidly advancing across the Donetsk region and closing in on the industrial town of Kurakhove, having taken control of the surrounding territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed yesterday that he had visited the near-by frontline city of Pokrovsk, which Russian troops are also bearing down on.

Further north, Russia attacked the Sumy region overnight, gutting a Soviet-era resident building and killing at least nine people, including a child.

Emergency services said that four people were probably trapped under the rubble.

The attack hit the dormitory in the town of Glukhiv, which had a pre-war population around 30,000 people and lies just 10km from the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops captured swathes of territory in a major ground offensive in August.

Since the incursion, Ukrainian forces have been steadily losing ground. They warn that Russia has amassed 50,000 troops, including North Korean forces, to drive them out.

In total, Kyiv said that Russia had launched 87 drones overnight, and that it had shot down 51.

'Never submit'

The head of NATO today warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin must not be allowed to prevail in the war.

"Why is this so crucial that Putin will not get his way? Because you will have an emboldened Russia on our border... and I'm absolutely convinced it will not stop there," Mark Rutte told reporters, as he joined EU ministers for defence talks in Brussels.

Ukraine's foreign ministry has urged allies to ramp up their military support to bring about a "sustainable" end to the war.

"Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law," it said in a statement.

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement," the ministry added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.

The Kremlin also vowed to defeat Ukraine.

"The military operation against Kyiv continues," its spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, before insisting that it "will be completed."

The comments came as Vladimir Putin loosened restrictions on launching a nuclear attack, in a move seen as a direct threat to the West and Ukraine.

The EU's outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell today pressed member states to align with Washington in allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia using donated long-range missiles. That decision by the US was immediately followed by Putin's revision of his nuclear doctrine.