Ukraine has acknowledged for the first time that Russia's army has entered the Dnipropetrovsk region, a central administrative area previously spared from intense fighting.
"Yes, they have entered, and fighting is ongoing as of now," Viktor Tregubov, spokesperson for the Dnipro Operational Strategic Group of Forces, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Russia first said its forces had advanced into the region, which it has not made a formal territorial claim over, in July. It has since claimed to have captured some settlements there.
In a separate statement, Ukraine's general staff of the armed forces rejected Russia's claims to have fully captured the villages of Zaporizke and Novohrodivka.
But battlefield monitor DeepState, which has close ties to Ukraine's military, said on Tuesday that Russia had "occupied" them.
Preparations for a 'further advance'
The Russian army "is now consolidating its positions, and is accumulating infantry for a further advance", it added in a social media post.
Russian forces are slowly but steadily gaining ground in costly battles for largely devastated areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, normally with few inhabitants or intact buildings left.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea — that Russia has publicly claimed as its own territory.
Peace talks stall
The concession from Ukraine that it has lost ground for the first time in the region comes as momentum towards a possible peace deal has stalled.
After United States President Donald Trump met both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, raising hopes for a breakthrough, Russia has since ruled out any immediate meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Putin is demanding Ukraine withdraw from some territory it still controls as a precondition to halting his invasion — demands rejected as a non-starter in Ukraine.
