The Russian military on Tuesday claimed to have captured the village of Blagodatne north of the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut that has been the epicentre of heavy fighting. The defence ministry said that “as a result of successful offensive actions” its forces “liberated the settlement of Blagodatne of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” using Moscow’s term for the eastern Donetsk region. Blagodatne lies near Soledar, a salt-mining town that Russian forces have recently captured, […]