Russia takes control of Ocheretyne village in Ukraine’s east

MOSCOW: Russian forces have taken control of the village of Ocheretyne, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

The village, which lies northwest of the onetime Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka which Russia captured in February, had a pre-war population of around 3,000.

There was no comment from Ukrainian officials and no mention of Ocheretnye in the evening report of the Armed Forces General Staff.

Unofficial Ukrainian war bloggers, including the popular Deep State Map site, indicated that Russia was in control of the village.

Russia has made slow but steady advances since taking Avdiivka, with a string of villages in the area falling to Moscow’s forces.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Orthodox Easter on Sunday killed a woman buried under rubble and injured 17 in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region, regional officials said.

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said six people were injured in an overnight drone attack on the Osnovyanskyi district of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Ten more were hurt in an attack later in the day by aerial bombs on the city centre.

“The next time it could hit my house. Why did it hit here? Just who is here? And on such a holy day. How? I cannot grasp it at all...” Natalia Avilova-Patrikeyeva said outside an apartment building with shattered balconies and windows blown out.