Ukraine updates: Russia captures Donetsk front-line village

The United States is to donate military aid worth around $1.7 billion (€1.57 billion) to Ukraine in its latest installment, government officials announced on Monday. 

The package will include an array of munitions for air defense systems, artillery and mortars, as well as anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said the package would include "key capabilities for the fight." He noted it was a ninth US package of assistance since April, when a deadlock in Congress lasting months was lifted allowing the US to restart deliveries. 

The air defense weapons include munitions for the NASAMS and HIMARS surface-to-air defense systems.

Roughly $200 million of the package is to be immediate military aid taken from Pentagon stockpiles, while the remainder is funding for long-term contracts through the Ukraine Security Initiative. 

The announcement comes around two weeks after the NATO summit in Washington, where allies sought to shore up support for Ukraine almost two-and-a-half years after Russia's full scale invasion. 

President Joe Biden announced during the summit that the US would send a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, answering a key plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region where he awarded medals to mark Special Forces Day.

The town has been hit by heavy fighting since May.

"This section is probably one of the most difficult," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy also visited the small town of Derhachi where he was shown 18 rebuilt houses and newly constructed shelters.

Russia said on Monday that its forces captured two front-line villages in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Vovche and Prohres are located some 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Avdiivka, a key town as captured by Russia in February after intense fighting.

"They pressed non-stop" to capture the villages of Vovche and Prohres, the chief sergeant of Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade told Radio Svaboda on Monday.

"They sent in a large number of troops, which had not previously been used." 

Ukrainian authorities had already urged residents to evacuate from Vovche last month due to Russian air strikes. Only seven people were left in the village, which had a population of around 100 before the war.

Russia has been pressuring the Ukrainian defensive positions with a heavy advantage in soldiers and weaponry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had "improved their tactical position" after capturing Vovche.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy late Sunday described the situation in the Donetsk region as "extremely challenging."

A top Ukrainian presidential advisor has compared signing a deal with Russia to end the war to signing "a deal with the devil."

"If you want to sign a deal with the devil, who will then drag you to hell, well, go for it. This is what Russia is," Mykhailo Podolyak told the Associated Press in an interview.

"If you sign anything today with Russia, that will not lose the war and will not be legally responsible for mass crimes, this will mean that you have signed yourself a ticket to continue the war on a different scale, with other protagonists, with a different number of killed and tortured people," he said.

Podolyak's position is shared by many in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's camp. But some observers have more recently called for a cease-fire deal.