Russian forces capture village of Memryk in east, Ukraine says troops holding firm

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian forces pressed on with their advance on the eastern front in their 2-1/2-year-old war against Ukraine, capturing the village of Memryk, east of the city of Pokrovsk, the Defence Ministry said.

Ukraine made no mention in accounts by the military's General Staff of the village, lying in the front's most hotly contested sector. But the country's war blogs reported it had passed into Russian hands last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv's forces were holding their own in Donetsk region.

Reuters could not independently verify accounts from either side.

Russian forces, in a slow advance through Donetsk region, have in recent weeks moved towards the town of Pokrovsk.

Moscow's defence ministry noted the capture of Memryk in one of its daily reports and said Russian forces had inflicted losses on Ukrainian troops in at least two other nearby villages and repelled eight enemy attacks in Donetsk region.

On Sunday, the ministry announced the capture of another village, Novohrodivka, which a Ukrainian officer said had been abandoned by Kyiv's forces several days earlier.

In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said troops in Donetsk region were "completing their tasks in truly steadfast fashion, repelling Russian assaults and reclaiming our positions".

"It is equally important to destroy as many occupying forces as possible. The Pokrovsk sector, the Kurakhove sector, it is here that the Russian army must lose as much combat capability as possible."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, also reported on action in northeast Kharkiv region and on Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched last month.

Ukrainian forces, he said, were "getting Russia used to a clear understanding of where its land is and where its neighbour's land is".

Authorities in Sumy region, across the border from Kursk, announced the obligatory evacuation of three more settlements in areas long subject to Russian attacks.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Ron Popeski and Sandra Maler)