(MENAFN) Russia claimed on Friday that its forces had taken control of three more settlements in eastern Ukraine, according to a statement released by its Defense Ministry.

The ministry reported that Russian troops in the Dnipropetrovsk region seized the village of Pryvillia, located about six kilometers (3.7 miles) southwest of Verbove, which Moscow previously said it had captured on October 1. Pryvillia lies near the border separating the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The statement further asserted that Russian forces had captured the villages of Pishchane and Tykhe in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Pishchane is situated roughly 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) southeast of Kupiansk, a key front line in the ongoing Russian offensive. According to reports, the regional governor, Oleh Synyehubov, recently ordered large-scale civilian evacuations from 27 settlements near Kupiansk due to a “worsening security situation.”

Tykhe, another settlement claimed by Russia, lies about five kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Russian border and around 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) northeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which has faced frequent airstrikes since the start of the conflict.

Ukraine’s General Staff, however, stated that its forces repelled 13 Russian assaults over the past 24 hours in several areas near the Kupiansk front, including Pishchane. It also reported ongoing clashes near Vovchansk, located west of Tykhe, as well as around Verbove in Dnipropetrovsk.

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