Russia claims fresh advances in southern Ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier fires from a RPG-7 during training at the polygon, in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

The Russian army said Sunday it had captured two more villages in Ukraine’s south, where it has advanced in recent days as Kyiv scrambles to hold on to Pokrovsk further east.

Exhausted and outnumbered Ukrainian troops are struggling to fend off a larger Russian army as Moscow’s full-scale offensive nears its fourth winter.

The Russian defence ministry announced the capture of two villages, Mala Tokmachka and Rivnopillia, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Mala Tokmachka is south-east of Zaporizhzhia city, and its capture endangers the nearby hub of Orikhiv.

Rivnopillia is in eastern Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces now control territory to the north, east and south of the town of Gulyaipole.

Moscow’s defence ministry published aerial footage of Rivnopollia, showing Russian soldiers waving Russian flags over several damaged village houses.

Russia occupies large swathes of the Zaporizhzhia region -- one of four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin claims as its own.

Kyiv said Sunday it had hit an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, a day after it said it struck another refinery in a region near Moscow.

“Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the Novokuibyshevk oil refinery,” the Ukrainian General Staff said.

Ukraine has struck Russian infrastructure throughout the conflict.

In eastern Ukraine, fighting centres around control of the key logistical hub Pokrovsk, which hundreds of Russian soldiers have infiltrated in recent weeks, weakening Ukrainian defences.

Peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow are currently deadlocked, and a planned Budapest summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin did not go ahead.