Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov says troops seized 12 settlements in eastern Ukraine this month, ahead of new peace talks and the war’s fourth anniversary.

MOSCOW: Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov (pic) has claimed that Kremlin forces seized a dozen eastern Ukrainian villages during the first two weeks of February.

Gerasimov made the statement during a visit to troops in Ukraine, according to a defence ministry announcement.

His visit comes days before US-mediated talks with Kyiv in Geneva aimed at ending the nearly four-year conflict. It also precedes the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine.

“In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task force liberated 12 settlements,” Gerasimov said.

AFP could not independently verify these battlefield claims.

The pace of Moscow’s advance increased last autumn, but Russia has still not achieved its stated goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region.

Russia demands that Kyiv withdraw from the Donetsk region as a condition for any peace deal, terms which Ukraine finds unacceptable.

Gerasimov said Moscow’s troops were advancing towards the industrial hub of Sloviansk.

Moscow’s forces are currently positioned approximately 15 kilometres from the city, which briefly fell to pro-Russian separatists in 2014.

Russia claims the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as its own territory.

Its military operations have also extended into other Ukrainian regions beyond these claimed areas.

Gerasimov stated that Russia was “expanding a security zone” in border areas of the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions, where it controls pockets of territory.

The army chief added that he would discuss “further actions in the Dnipropetrovsk direction” with officers.

Russian forces crossed into the Dnipropetrovsk region last summer during their westward push, though the Kremlin has never officially claimed the region.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow intends to seize the whole of the Donetsk region by force if diplomatic efforts fail.

 The Sun Malaysia