KYIV   -   Russia said Wednesday its forces had captured a district in the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has been pressing for months.

The claim from Moscow came just after Kyiv said that Russian strikes on the industrial city of Dnipro had killed five people and wounded nearly three dozen more including a 14-year-old girl.

The defence ministry said its troops had “liberated” the Novy district of Chasiv Yar, but it was unclear if it was claiming its forces had crossed a canal which runs through the eastern part of the town.

The capture of Chasiv Yar -- a prized military hub that was once a sleepy town home to some 12,000 people -- would pave the way for Russian advances towards the last Ukrainian-controlled civilian centres in the Donetsk region.

Russia’s capture of the district was also reported by the DeepState military blog, which has links to the Ukrainian army. It said the area had been flattened by Russian bombardments, and that withdrawing was “a logical, albeit difficult decision.” There was no immediate reaction from officials in Kyiv. Whereas, Russia said Wednesday it had destroyed two Ukrainian naval drones that were advancing on its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk overnight.

Ukrainian naval drones have sunk several Russian ships in the Black Sea, but strikes as far east as Novorossiysk are rare.

“Two unmanned boats travelling in the direction of Novorossiysk were destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a post on Telegram.

The major port city lies on Russia’s southeastern coast, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The route from Ukrainian-held territory to the port is at least 500 kilometres (300 miles) through the Black Sea, around the southern tip of Crimea.

After a spate of successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian ships in the Black Sea, satellite images revealed Moscow pulled its Black Sea fleet out of its historic base in Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, which is harder for Ukraine to hit.

The defence ministry published footage of what it said was the naval drones being destroyed.

It showed several bright rounds being fired into the sea at night from multiple directions, several hitting the waters next to a small craft before an explosion and fire break out.

Kyiv has heavily targeted Crimea since Russia launced its full-scale military offensive in February 2022, including multiple attacks and attempted strikes on the Kerch bridge, a vital road and rail route linking the peninsula to Russia.