Russia said on Monday it captured an east Ukrainian mining village south of Pokrovsk, home to one of Ukraine鈥檚 most important coal mines and where Russian troops have reached the outskirts.
Russian forces have been edging towards Pokrovsk, an important eastern hub, since the summer.
Moscow鈥檚 defence ministry said troops took the village of Pishchane, around eight kilometres south-west of Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for months.
Last month, Ukraine鈥檚 main steelmaker Metinvest and the owner of the Pishchane mine said it had halted operations there and evacuated personnel.
The shaft in Pishchane provided around half of Metinvest鈥檚 total Ukrainian coal extraction.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of launching a drone attack on the infrastructure of a major gas pipeline that carries Russian supplies to Europe via Turkey.
The allegation 鈥� which Kyiv has not commented on 鈥� comes amid an escalating energy row between the two countries, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale military offensive.
Kyiv halted the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine on January 1 鈥� ending decades of energy cooperation that had brought billions of dollars to both countries 鈥� in a bid to cut off revenue for Moscow鈥檚 army.
The United States last week rolled out fresh sanctions on Russia鈥檚 oil sector.
The Russian defence ministry said Ukraine had fired nine attack drones on Saturday at a gas compressor station in the village of Gai-Kodzor, near Russia鈥檚 southern coast on the Black Sea.
The site is across from the annexed Crimean peninsula 鈥� heavily targeted by Kyiv throughout the three-year conflict.
It said the facility was part of the TurkStream pipeline and accused Ukraine of trying to 鈥榗ut off gas supplies to European countries鈥�.
鈥楢ll the drones were shot down,鈥� the defence ministry said in a statement published Monday on its Telegram channel.
鈥楢s a result of falling fragments of one drone, a building and equipment of a gas measuring station suffered minor damage,鈥� it added, saying there was no disruption to supply and the facility was working as normal.
TurkStream runs for 930 kilometres under the Black Sea from the Russian resort city of Anapa to Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey, before connecting to overground pipelines that run up through the Balkans to Europe.
After the claimed attack, EU member Hungary, which receives Russian gas via the route, called on its 鈥榮ecurity and operability鈥� to be 鈥榬espected by all鈥�.
鈥楾he security of energy supply is a sovereignty issue, so any action that threatens the security of our energy supply must be seen as an attack on sovereignty,鈥� foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook.
