Ukraine's forces have carried out repeated aerial bombardments of strategic industrial sites in Russia, causing havoc and substantial damage.

Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine, as part of a grinding campaign to weaken Kyiv's grip on the country's industrial heartland.

Ukraine's forces have carried out repeated aerial bombardments of strategic industrial sites in Russia, causing havoc and substantial damage.

For the past year, Russian forces have been waging an intense campaign to punch holes in Ukraine’s defences in the Donetsk region and weaken Kyiv’s grip on the eastern parts of the country. The sustained and costly offensive has compelled Kyiv to give up a series of towns, villages and hamlets.

Russian forces have retaken 63.2% of the territory captured by Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia, the Russian defence ministry said on Friday.

The Russian Embassy in London said that Russia posed no threat to undersea cables in Britain and other NATO countries, after UK defence minister John Healey accused Moscow of "malign activity" at sea.

Kyiv says it struck a Russian oil refinery and a microchip factory in attack which Moscow says contained 120 drones

Russia’s military on Tuesday said it would retaliate against Ukraine after Kyiv attacked Russian regions by firing six US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and launching one of the biggest drone attacks to date.

As snow fell in a wooded area of Ukraine, the long-range attack drones accelerated one by one down an unlit, abandoned road and their whirring engines propelled them into the night sky. The unmanned aircraft carrying explosive warheads are part of a Ukrainian campaign of long-range drone attacks that aim to inflict blows on Russia far behind the front line as Moscow's troops advance in the east.

Oleksandr Syrskyi credited Ukraine's attacks on "industrial enterprises" that manufacture ammo, missile parts, and other weapons deep inside Russia.

Ukraine drones hit an oil refinery east of Moscow in a mass attack on Russia, according to military sources. The oil plant in Ryazan, 120 miles south east of the capital, was targeted, as was a microelectronics production plant in Bryansk, western Russia, according to Ukraine’s military.