Moscow takes control of Donetsk region village; Ukraine shoots down drones

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Moscow said on Saturday it has full control of a village on the outskirts of Ukraine's Donetsk region while Kyiv said it constrained Russian military resupply routes in the occupied Kherson region.

The Kremlin said its forces had taken Pisky in its continuing effort to sever Donetsk and the rest of the Donbas region from Ukraine. It also marks another Moscow victory in its slow march to command a region where Kremlin-supported separatists have been fighting Ukrainian fighters since 2014.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said its forces destroyed a U.S.-made HIMARS rocket system near Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine along with an ammunition depot. The United States \ recently gave Ukraine the rocket system to defend itself against the six-month Russian invasion.

Kyiv's Joint Forces Operation reported Saturday that its military shot down four Russian Orlan-10 drones in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

In its daily war assessment, the British Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian strikes this week have probably put two primary road bridges, which give access to Russian-occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro in Kherson oblast, out of use for resupply.

"On [Wednesday], Ukrainian precision strikes likely rendered the road crossing of the Dnipro River at Nova Kakhovka unusable for heavy military vehicles," the ministry said on Twitter.

"In recent days, Russia has only succeeded in making superficial repairs to the damaged Antonivsky road bridge which likely remains structurally undermined."

The ministry said even if Moscow manages to make significant repairs to the bridges, they will remain a key vulnerability to future Ukrainian strikes.

"Ground resupply for the several thousand Russian troops on the west bank is almost certainly reliant on just two pontoon ferry crossing points," the British Defense Ministry said. "With their supply chain constrained, the size of any stockpiles Russia has managed to establish on the west bank is likely to be a key factor in the force's endurance."