KYIV—Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river in eastern Ukraine on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of a summit of European leaders expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the EU.
Moscow’s separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk, which has become the main battlefield city in recent weeks.
Ukraine acknowledged that Moscow had success in Toshkivka and said the Russians were trying to gain a foothold there to make a breakthrough into the wider, Ukrainian-held pocket of the eastern Donbass region. It also confirmed a Russian claim to have captured Metyolkine on Sievierodonetsk’s eastern outskirts….