The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the village of Miren west of Donetsk, as part of their advance towards Dnipropetrovsk, confirming a breach of “deep Ukrainian defenses.”

In this context, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the West for ignoring Moscow’s interests since the collapse of the Soviet Union, while U.S. diplomatic initiatives to halt the fighting remain stalled amid mutual rejection of ceasefire proposals.