MOSCOW,
Sept 10 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday its forces had advanced by
1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles) in eastern Ukraine in August
and September despite a Ukrainian incursion into western Russia, which
ruled out any ceasefire talks with Kyiv.
Since
Russia sent armoured forces into Ukraine in February 2022, the war has
largely been a story of grinding artillery and drone strikes along a
heavily fortified 1,000-km (620-mile) front involving hundreds of
thousands of soldiers.
Russian
Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said that the Aug. 6 Ukrainian
incursion into Russia's Kursk region had aimed to improve Kyiv's
negotiating position and divert Russian forces from the Donbas front in
eastern Ukraine.
But
Shoigu said that Russian forces were increasing the pace of their
offensive in Donbas, capturing almost 1,000 sq km over August and the
first eight days of September.
Open
source data and battlefield reports indicate that Russian forces in
Donbas advanced in August at their fastest rate in about two years,
though Ukraine also seized a chunk of the Kursk region.
Shoigu,
who sits at the heart of Kremlin policy-making on the Security Council,
said on state TV that as long as Ukrainian forces were on sovereign
Russian soil there would be no talks with Kyiv, and this was the stance
of President Vladimir Putin.
Russian forces, which have taken about a fifth of Ukraine since invading
in February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to
take the whole of the Donbas, which is about half the size of the U.S.
state of Ohio.
Russia said on Sunday
that its forces had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as
Moscow's forces advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk
and seek to pierce the Ukrainian defensive front lines.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the Kursk operation was also to
prevent Russian forces from crossing the border in the opposite
direction.
Putin
ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in
what he calls a "special military operation" against security threats by
Western-backed Kyiv. Ukraine has denied such accusations and vowed to
expel all Russian forces.
Russian
news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying Moscow's forces had
taken four more villages in eastern Ukraine. Reuters could not
independently verify the battlefield reports from either side.
On Monday Russia said its forces had captured
the village of Memryk, roughly 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Pokrovsk.
Zelenskiy said Kyiv's forces were holding their own in the east.
Ukraine also struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital.
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Reporting by Reuters; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Mark Heinrich