INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia said Sunday it had captured two more settlements in east Ukraine, one in the Donetsk region and one in the Kharkiv region.Ukraine did
not immediately comment on Russia's claims.Moscow has been grinding forward on the front line for over a year, pressing its advantage
against overstretched and outmanned Ukrainian troops.On Sunday, Russia said it had captured the village of Piddubne in Donetsk and Sobolivka
in Kharkiv.Piddubne was home to around 500 people before the conflict and lies just 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the border of Ukraine's
central Dnipropetrovsk region.The Sobolivka village lies some 3 kilometers (2 miles) west of the town of Kupiansk, outside of areas Russia
claims it is holding, according to battlefield maps by the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).In two separate Telegram posts,
the localities.The Russian military accelerated its advances for a third consecutive month in June.Its territorial gains for that month were
the biggest since November last year, according to an AFP analysis of ISW data.
