Russian forces claim to have taken the front-line village of Novoselydivka in Donetsk Oblast on Nov. 19.

Ukraine has not commented on the claims, which could not be independently verified.

Novoselydivka lies some 7 kilometers (4 miles) north of Kurakhove, an important stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the area that has seen increasingly heavy Russian assaults in the past months.

If confirmed, this will be the latest village that the Russian forces took in their attempt to encircle Kurakhove by driving their forces towards Konstiantynopil with a north-south pincer movement.

With the best Ukrainian brigades holding Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Russian troops move forward along the Donetsk front line at a rate not seen since the early weeks of the war.

The victory of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in early November adds further uncertainty to Kyiv’s military prospects to hold its defenses across the 1,200-kilometer-long (750 miles) front line as doubt over Washington’s future military aid looms.

Outgoing President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied ATACMS to strike targets deep inside Russia may help in the short run but will not change the general course of the war, observers said.

Russian forces damage Kurakhove Reservoir dam in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine says“This attack potentially threatens residents of settlements on the Vovcha River, both in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts,” Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin said.The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova