Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov visited troops fighting in Ukraine and announced that Moscow’s forces have seized 12 villages in eastern Ukraine during February, the defense ministry said Sunday. His visit came days before US-backed talks in Geneva aimed at ending nearly four years of war with Ukraine. “In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task force liberated 12 settlements,” Gerasimov said. Reuters’ Agence France-Presse could not independently confirm these claims. Russia’s military advance has sped up since autumn, but it has not yet achieved its goal of fully capturing the Donetsk region in four years of fighting. Russia demands that Kyiv withdraw from Donetsk for any peace deal, a demand rejected by Ukraine. Gerasimov said Russian troops are moving towards Sloviansk, a key industrial city under regular Russian attack and about 15 kilometers from current Russian forces. Moscow claims the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions as part of Russia, but it has also operated in other Ukrainian parts. He added that Russian forces are expanding security zones in border areas of Sumy and Kharkiv regions and would discuss further moves in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russian troops entered Dnipropetrovsk last summer but Russia has not officially claimed it. President Vladimir Putin has stated Moscow wants to take the entire Donetsk region by force if diplomacy fails, marking Russia’s persistent military goal since the war began.