Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday, 23 August, that its forces had taken control of the villages of Kleban-Byk and Sredne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, marking the latest incremental advance along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line. Kleban-Byk lies northwest of the contested town of Toretsk, while Sredne is closer to the administrative border with Kharkiv region. Moscow added that the two gains come a day after it claimed the capture of three other localities in the area. Ukraine’s General Staff did not acknowledge losing either settlement and said its troops had instead recaptured Zelenyi Hai on the edge of neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. The battlefield claims of both sides could not be independently verified. The slow Russian advance underscores continued pressure on Ukrainian positions as diplomatic efforts stall; a prospective meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump, has yet to materialise.