Russia on Sunday said that its forces captured two frontline villages in Ukraine, Andriivka in the eastern Lugansk region and Pishchane in the northeast Kharkiv region.
Ukraine鈥檚 president Volodomyr Zelensky welcomed the arrival of a Patriot air-defence system from Germany, as both sides announced more deaths from missile strikes.
Earlier Sunday, Russia said that it had scrambled fighter jets to prevent two US strategic bombers from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
The two villages Russia claimed to have taken were less than 20 kilometres from each other on a section of the frontline where Moscow made grinding advances in recent weeks.
Russian army units 鈥榣iberated鈥� the settlements of Andriivka and Pishchane 鈥榓s well as occupied more favourable lines and positions,鈥� Russia鈥檚 defence ministry said in a statement.
Andriivka, a village of less than 20 people, was one of the last settlements in the eastern Lugansk region that Kyiv still controlled and had been a key target for Moscow.
Pishchane had also been in the Kremlin鈥檚 sights because its capture could pave the way for Russia to reach the Oskil river that lies about 10 kilometres away, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Moscow claimed to have taken a string of villages and settlements in recent weeks, many consisting of no more than a few streets and a handful of abandoned buildings.
Neither side had been able to achieve a decisive breakthrough and both Moscow and Kyiv said that they were inflicting heavy casualties on the other, almost two and a half years after Russia launched its offensive.
Strikes on Sunday killed at least five civilians in Ukraine on both sides of the frontline, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.
Four of the deaths were reported in parts of Ukraine captured by Russia in its nearly two-and-a-half-year-long invasion and now under Moscow鈥檚 control.
In the Kremlin-controlled part of the southern Kherson region, Moscow-appointed governor Vladimir Saldo said Ukrainian strikes killed a woman while she was in her house.
Two others were injured, Saldo added on the social media network Telegram.
In the partially occupied Donetsk region, a married couple were killed when their car was hit in the occupied city of Gorlivka, the Russian-installed governor Denis Pushilin said.
Also speaking on Telegram, Pushilin added that a Ukrainian drone strike killed a woman in the village of Verkhnotoretske.
In his evening address Sunday, Ukraine鈥檚 president Volodymyr Zelensky said that the country鈥檚 air-defence systems had been reinforced.
鈥楾he German 鈥淧atriot鈥� system has arrived in Ukraine, and I would like to thank Germany and the United States for this step,鈥� he said. 鈥榃e will be able to do more in the skies.鈥�
Zelensky has been pressing for the delivery of the 鈥楶atriot鈥� air-defence system for months.
Germany and Romania had already announced that they were sending their two Patriots and the Dutch have said they are working to put one together to help Kyiv. Italy is also providing a separate missile system.
Strikes on Sunday killed at least five civilians on both sides of the frontline, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.
Four of the deaths occurred in three different Ukrainian artillery strikes in parts of the country now under Moscow鈥檚 control, according to Russian-installed officials.
In an area controlled by Kyiv, a 37-year-old man was killed and his assistant injured by a Russian strike on a combine harvester, the Ukrainian prosecutor general鈥檚 office said.
Earlier Sunday, the Russian defence ministry said that its fighter jets had intercepted 鈥榓 pair of US Air Force B-52H strategic bombers鈥�.
The US military routinely carried out flights over international waters, which it insisted were in accordance with international law.
Moscow responded more aggressively to the exercises in recent months. It said that the two US bombers turned away from its border as the Russian fighters approached.
A barrage of Ukrainian drones sparked a blaze overnight at an oil refinery and separately killed one person in southern Russia, officials in Russia and Ukraine said on Monday.
Kyiv and Moscow intensified fatal cross-border missile and drone attacks over recent months with both sides primarily targeting energy infrastructure.
Authorities in the Russian Black Sea town of Tuapse in the Krasnodar region said that debris from one downed drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery.
The governor of Russia鈥檚 southern Belgorod region meanwhile said that one person driving a tractor was killed by a Ukrainian drone and his wife had been injured.
A source in the Ukrainian defence sector said that drones linked to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine were behind the oil refinery attack and that the facility was operated by Russian state energy giant Rosneft.
鈥楾he extent of the damage to the aggressor state鈥檚 military-industrial complex is currently being clarified,鈥� the source said in written comments.
Russia its forces had downed 75 Ukrainian drones overnight, with nearly 50 destroyed over the southern Rostov region.
Air defence systems intercepted 47 drones over Rostov, 17 over the Black and Azov seas and 11 in other areas including one over the frontier region of Belgorod, the defence ministry said.
Russia almost daily announces the interception of Ukrainian drones which Kyiv says are a response to Russian attacks aimed at military and civilian targets since Moscow launched its special military operation in February 2022.
Ukraine meanwhile said its forces had downed 16 Russian drones overnight.