Russia claims to have taken 7 villages in Ukraine over past week

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia claimed on Friday that its forces took control of seven Ukrainian villages over the past week.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry said six settlements were captured in the Dnipropetrovsk region in an operation by the Vostok (East) group of forces, and one in the Kharkiv region by the Zapad (West) group of forces.

The ministry also said that it carried out one massive and five group strikes with high-precision weapons against Ukraine's military industry enterprises and energy facilities, transport infrastructure, military airfields, arsenals, workshops for assembling Flamingo cruise missiles and long-range drones, storage sites, as well as temporary deployment sites for Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries.

The statement added that Ukraine responded with air raids; 17 guided aerial bombs, 10 US-made HIMARS rockets, two long-range guided missiles Neptune and 1,701 aircraft-type drones were shot down over the past week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Russia launched a mass strike against different targets across Ukraine. He said most of the shells and rockets were shot down.