Village close to the troubled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is claimed by Russia

The defence ministry reports that airborne support helped in the conquest of Blahodatne; Ukraine has not yet commented.

As it steps up its efforts to encircle the front-line city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, Russia claims to have conquered a town on Bakhmut's northern fringes.

Aerial assistance was used to help seize the town of Blahodatne, which lies roughly five kilometres (three miles) north of Bakhmut, according to a statement released by the Russian defence ministry on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian government did not respond right away, and Al Jazeera was unable to independently confirm the claim.

The declaration came three days after the leader of the Russian Wagner Group claimed that the mercenary group had taken control of Blahodatne in an assault that Ukraine claimed to have repulsed.

The conquest of Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of roughly 75,000, would be Russia's first significant victory since capturing Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in July.

Two people, including a kid, were killed in a Russian artillery bombardment on Bakhmut on Tuesday, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

In the past few weeks, Russian forces have achieved a number of gains in the region, most notably seizing the salt-mining town of Soledar to Bakhmut's north.

Additionally, earlier this month, Russia said that it had taken control of Klishchiivka, a hamlet in the Donetsk area of Ukraine with a pre-war population of roughly 400. About nine kilometres (six miles) south of Bakhmut is where the settlement is located.

Military centres in Belarus

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, supported a plan on Tuesday to establish joint military training facilities with Belarus, reigniting rumours that Belarusian forces would join his troops in Ukraine.

Putin gave the foreign and defence ministries the go-ahead to negotiate with Belarus and sign a contract setting up the facilities.

The locations of the centres were not mentioned in the paper. Moscow was permitted by Minsk to utilise Belarusian soil as a base for its Ukraine invasion, which got under way on February 24 of last year.

Despite increased military cooperation with Russia, Belarus' longstanding president Alexander Lukashenko has vowed for months that he will not send soldiers into Ukraine.