Russian forces take control of three Ukrainian villages across multiple regions, defence ministry says

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian troops have taken control of three villages in three different parts of the frontline running through Ukraine, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Official Ukrainian reports of activity along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front disputed part of the Russian account, particularly concerning a key village in the southeast.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side.

The Russian Defence Ministry report named the three captured settlements as Kamianske in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Dehtiarne in northeastern Kharkiv region, and Popiv Yar in Donetsk region, the main theatre of Russian operations.

Russian forces are engaged in a slow advance westward, mainly through Donetsk region, and Moscow announces the capture of new villages almost every day.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Vladyslav Voloshyn told the liga.net media outlet that holding Kamianske, southeast of the region's main town of Zaporizhzhia, was important to keep that city safe from attack.

But Kamianske had been all but flattened by long periods of fighting, he said. Ukrainian forces had moved out of it and successfully attacked Russian troops whenever small groups periodically ventured into it.

"The Russians cannot go into the village and hold it," Voloshyn was quoted as saying. "There is not a single dwelling left intact, not a single wall left standing, nothing to hold, nothing to enable you to take cover."

There was no acknowledgement from Ukraine that Popiv Yar had changed hands - the village lies northeast of Pokrovsk, for months a focal point of Russian attacks in Donetsk region.

For at least a week, it has remained in the "grey zone" of uncertain control as reported by DeepState, a Ukrainian military blog based on open source accounts of the fighting. There was no news from Ukrainian officials of the situation at Dehtiarne.

On Wednesday, Russia's military announced the capture of the village of Novohatske, southwest of Pokrovsk. Another Ukrainian military spokesperson, Viktor Trehubov, told public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that the village was in Russian hands.

Moscow controls a little less than 20% of Ukrainian territory and says it has incorporated four regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson into Russia, a move that Kyiv and most Western countries reject as illegal.

In 2014, Russia seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, also a claim widely disputed internationally.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Ron PopeskiEditing by Andrew Osborn and David Gregorio)