MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia on Thursday claimed to have taken control of two new villages in eastern Ukraine, near the industrial town of Kurakhove which it is on the brink of capturing, Russian news agencies reported.

The defense ministry said in a daily briefing that troops had “liberated” the village of Zelenivka and Novyi Komar, southwest of Kurakhove, a strategic industrial town on the banks of a reservoir that Moscow is trying to encircle.

Noviy Komar is close to the larger village of Velyka Novosilka, where Ukraine has a large command and logistics post, a Moscow-installed official, Vladimir Rogov, told RIA Novosti news agency.

Moscow has been advancing in east Ukraine for months, pressing its advantage against overstretched and outgunned Ukrainian soldiers, and has claimed new villages almost daily this month.

The nearly three-year conflict has escalated sharply in recent months, with Kyiv deploying United States and British-supplied long-range missiles in attacks on Russian soil and Moscow firing an experimental hypersonic weapon at Ukraine in response.

Drone attacks

Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on a neighboring Russian region had been “neutralized,” the area’s governor said Thursday, but they caused a brief fire at a local oil refinery.

Russia’s southern Rostov region was “subjected to a massive attack by the enemy,” local governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram at around 6 a.m. local time.

“More than three dozen UAVs and three missiles” were deployed, he said, adding that the Russian air defense services were activated across several cities in the region.

While “most of the air targets were neutralized,” a fire broke out at an oil refinery, he said

“Firefighters are currently fighting the fire,” Slyusar said, adding later around 6:45 a.m. that the fire “has been extinguished.”

He also said one person was wounded in a village near Rostov “due to the fall of drone fragments.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that Kyiv’s attempts “to carry out terrorist attacks using aircraft-type UAVs... were thwarted.”

It added that Russia’s air defense systems destroyed more than 80 drones across the country, including Rostov region.