Ukraine has hit an oil depot in southern Russia that supplies the Kremlin's troops as Russian strikes in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow claimed further gains, left five civilians dead and 15 others wounded.
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Ukraine's General Staff said Kyiv's security services were responsible on Sunday for a drone strike in Russia's southern Kursk region on an oil depot used to meet the needs of the Russian military, adding the attack prompted "powerful explosions and a fire ... probably involving containers with oil products".
"The defence forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers and force the Russian Federation to stop its armed aggression against Ukraine," the statement said.
Earlier on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said seven Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian territory, while a regional official said a drone strike set fire to the oil depot in the Kursk province.
Firefighters were battling the blaze on Sunday morning after three fuel tanks went up in flames, according to acting regional Governor Alexey Smirnov. He said nobody was hurt.
The Kursk region lies on the border with Ukraine's Sumy province where Ukraine has in recent months repeatedly targeted various sites, including oil depots and other military infrastructure, inside Russian territory, with drones and other weapons.
Ukrainian officials have been pressuring Western allies to be able to use their modern and more sophisticated weapons to strike more valuable targets inside Russian territory.
Also on Sunday, Russian troops continued to eke out gains in Donetsk as they pushed westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
Russia's defence ministry on Sunday said its forces had taken control of two neighbouring villages 30km east of Pokrovsk, Prohres and Yevhenivka.
The day before, Moscow claimed the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen it says it has captured in the province in July.
Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sending millions of people fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Taking control of all Donetsk, part of the country's industrial heartland that bears the scars of years of fighting, is one of the Kremlin's main war goals.
Five civilians died and 15 were wounded in Russian strikes in the Donetsk region on Saturday and overnight, local Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram Sunday.
Shortly after, other Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling wounded more civilians, including children, in the east and south.
At least eight people suffered wounds after Moscow's forces on Sunday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, local Governor Serhii Lysak reported that same day.
Lysak said a toddler and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims, six of whom had to be hospitalised.
Russian shelling on Sunday also wounded eight further civilians, including a 10-year-old and two teenagers, in a village in Ukraine's southern Kherson province, local official Roman Mrochko reported.
Australian Associated Press
