UPDATE 1-Ukraine's top commander sacks officers after territorial losses, media reports say

Ukraine's top military commander has sacked two senior officers after Kyiv's army gave up territory in areas under their command, Ukrainian media reported on Monday, quoting military sources.

Ukrainska Pravda, citing two senior military sources, said top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi ordered the dismissal of the two officers in charge of the 17th and 20th army corps over the past two weeks. The Interfax Ukraine news agency filed a similar report. Ukrainska Pravda said the 17th army corps, headed by Volodymyr Silenko, was located in Zaporizhzhia region, where the Ukrainian military had lost at least one village on the banks of the Dnipro River.

The 20th army corps, headed by Maksym Kituhin, was based on the administrative border between eastern Donetsk region and central Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian forces have announced a series of successes, capturing a number of villages. Interfax said the two officers had been transferred to other duties.

Russia's Defence Ministry on Monday said its forces had seized the village of Olhivske in Zaporizhzhia region. Vladimir Rogov, a senior Moscow-appointed official in Russian-held parts of the region, told Russia's RIA news agency that Moscow's forces had burst through Ukrainian defences and captured some 30 square km (11.5 square miles) of ground. As the war has been going on for more than 3-1/2 years, Russian forces have been engaged in a long, grinding westward drive focusing on Donetsk region, with the logistics hub of Pokrovsk one of Moscow's key targets.

Ukraine's military issued a statement quoting a commander in the area, Andriy Kryshchenko, as saying Ukrainian forces had halted a Russian advance near Pokrovsk. "Everyone understands that the tension has already been lifted and work is proceeding calmly to destroy our enemies," he was quoted as saying.

Ukraine's popular DeepState military blog, which uses open source maps to track the positions of troops, said Ukrainian forces had scored successes against Russian forces near the town of Dobropillia, north of Pokrovsk. Reuters could not independently verify accounts from either side.

In addition to the advances announced just inside Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian forces have also applied pressure to parts of northeastern Kharkiv region, notably around the largely destroyed city of Kupiansk. They have also tried to maintain a foothold in the northern border region of Sumy, although President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, quoting Syrskyi, has said Kyiv's forces have been recapturing ground near the border.

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