Ukraine has said it struck 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.

Earlier 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.

'Russia gains in Donetsk'

Also on Sunday, Russian troops continued to eke out gains in Ukraine's war-torn eastern Donetsk province as they pushed westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday said that its forces had taken control of two neighbouring villages some 30 kilometres 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 this month.

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.