The governor of Russia's southern Belgorod region has said Ukrainian forces have attacked a fuel depot, triggering a series of fires after Russia and Ukraine accused each other of launching overnight attacks on border regions.
"The Ukrainian military, aided by lethal drones, attacked a fuel storage site in Volokonovsky district," Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram, referring to an area near the border.
"Several reservoirs caught fire in an explosion. Firefighting crews are putting out the blaze."
Mr Gladkov also reported drone attacks on three other localities. There were no casualties reported in the incidents.
In the overnight air attacks, Ukrainian officials said two people were killed and four were injured in the Sumy region.
Mr Gladkov reported three civilians were injured in Belgorod.
Two children were among those injured in Sumy, the military administration of the northeastern Ukrainian region said on Sunday on Telegram.
Several homes and cars were damaged.
In Belgorod region, three civilians, including two children, were injured.
Mr Gladkov said two residential buildings were destroyed and more than 15 buildings in total were damaged.
The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed one drone over Belgorod region and another over Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border incursion last month. It said two drones were intercepted over Belgorod overnight.
The reports could not be independently verified.
Border regions on both sides have been subject to frequent attacks.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians, saying the attacks are aimed at destroying each other's infrastructure critical to war efforts.
Russia claims to have taken control of eastern Ukrainian town near Pokrovsk
Russian forces have taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as Moscow's forces advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk and seek to pierce the Ukrainian defensive front lines, Russia has said.
Russian forces, which control about a fifth of Ukraine since invading in February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take the whole of the Donbas.
Russia's defence ministry said its forces had taken the town of Novohrodivka, which lies 12km from Pokrovsk, an important rail and road hub for Ukrainian forces in the area.
The town had a population of 14,000 before the war.
Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, published maps showing Russian forces attacking beyond Novohrodivka in at least two places less than 7km from Pokrovsk.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military, in a late afternoon report, described the situation as "tense" throughout the Pokrovsk sector and said "fierce battles" gripped areas around several towns, including Novohrodivka.
"So far, the enemy has carried out 23 assaults on Ukrainian positions," the report said. "Battles are going on in six locations."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that a Ukrainian incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed to slow Russia's own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Ukraine's defences along the front line in a boost to Moscow.
Ukraine's top military commander said that Ukraine's incursion into the Kursk region was working and that there had been no Russian advances on Pokrovsk for the previous six days.
He said that one of the objectives of the Kursk incursion was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
Russia had diverted large numbers to Kursk but was also strengthening the Pokrovsk front, he added.
Putin focused on capturing Donbas
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area - which includes Donetsk - and claimed that Ukraine's Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Kyiv's partners to give him more scope to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.
"In just one week, Russia has used over 800 guided aerial bombs, nearly 300 Shahed drones, and more than 60 missiles of various types against our people," he said in a Facebook post.
"Terror can only be reliably stopped in one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror," he said.
Officials in the central city of Poltava said the death toll from a strike on a military education facility last week had risen to 58, after three who were wounded in the attack succumbed to their injuries.
Russian strikes also killed seven in the western city of Lviv last week, a relatively rare deadly strike on the city hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine's borders with EU and NATO members.
Ukraine has for months been calling for the West to supply longer-range missiles and lift restrictions that limit their use to the direct combat zone.
Ukraine's SBU security services said yesterday they had struck an ammunition depot in Russia's Voronezh region in a drone attack.
Kyiv has also carried out a string of drone hits on Russian oil depots and refineries, including some hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines.
Seeking the ability to use more effective Western-supplied missiles for its aerial campaign, Ukraine says such sites are legitimate targets as they provide fuel for Russia's military and are a key source of revenue for the Russian state.
"A country that defends itself against aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter cannot be restricted in its defence," Ukraine's newly appointed foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X.
"International law allows Ukraine to strike legitimate military targets on Russia's territory," he added.
