Russia says its forces push further in eastern Ukraine

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Friday it had captured the village of Marynivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, where its forces have been pushing towards the important logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine's General Staff said nothing about Marynivka changing hands in an evening report, noting that the village was among nearly a dozen localities where Russian forces had "received a fierce rebuff".

It said two Russian attacks in the area were continuing and noted that the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove sectors remained the most difficult on the eastern front. An earlier report said 42 Russian assaults on the Pokrovsk front had been repelled.

Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.

Russian forces have in recent weeks accelerated their progress in Donetsk, taking a series of towns and villages.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in the United States this week to request further support. U.S. President Joe Biden announced more than $8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday to help Kyiv "win this war".

(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Toby Chopra, Ron Popeski and Alistair Bell)