Russia has claimed that its forces captured a battered but strategic town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a day after Kyiv launched a counterattack in the Russian region of Kursk.

"Such fire damage is an integral part of combat operations of Ukraine's Defense Forces units, which are engaged in combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.

Kyiv's army said on Tuesday there was still active fighting in Kurakhove, a strategic town in Ukraine's east that Russia said it had seized the previous day. Moscow hailed the capture of the "important logistics hub,

Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have captured the stronghold of Kurakhove after a monthslong battle, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Monday, adding the wrecked town to the Kremlin’s list of conquests in the partially occupied Donetsk region during the almost three-year war.

Kyiv troops attacked in at least three areas within the Kursk region, some using armoured vehicles, according to the Institute for the Study of War