KRAMATORSK, Ukraine, April  5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ukraine warned on Friday 
that a key frontline town was coming under "constant fire" from advancing 
Russian troops as Moscow said it had captured another small village.
      
Russia's advances on the battlefield came as Ukraine said it had destroyed 
at least six military planes at a Russian airbase in one of its largest 
overnight drone attacks in weeks.
       
Buoyed by their advantage in manpower and arms, Russian forces are on the 
offensive.
       
The Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region appears to 
be their next major target.
       

"The town has become even more dangerous," the head of the Chasiv Yar 
military administration, Sergiy Chaus, told AFP on Friday during an interview 
in the nearby city of Kramatorsk.
      
 "If before there were moments when you could hear silence in the town, now 
there is no silence... There is constant fire" he said.
       
Both Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers with links to the armed forces 
said on Friday that Russian troops had reached the outskirts of the town.
       
Chaus declined to comment on those reports. He said there were around 770 
people still living there.
       
"There is not a single building left intact," he added.
      
 Chasiv Yar is an important logistics hub for Kyiv's forces and sits a few 
kilometres west of Bakhmut, which was flattened by months of artillery fire 
before it was captured by Russia last May.
      
 Russia has recently secured its first territorial gains since seizing 
Bakhmut and is now trying to press onwards against Ukrainian units hobbled by 
delays in the supply of vital Western military aid.
       
- Airbase attacked -
       
       Further to the south, Russia's military claimed on Friday to have captured 
the small village of Vodiane, on the outskirts of Donetsk city. 
       Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that his forces had 
"managed to stabilise our positions" and had halted Russian advances, despite a 
"shortage of shells and a significant slowdown in supplies".
       Zelensky inspected military fortifications under construction in the 
northern region of Chernihiv, according to a video released by his office 
Friday. 
       With its troops on the defensive, Kyiv has stepped up its aerial attacks on 
Russian territory, targeting both military sites and energy facilities in an 
attempt to knock out Russia's fuel and equipment supplies for its invasion.
       Kyiv fired more than 50 drones at Russian territory overnight, Russia's 
defence ministry said on Friday, one of its largest attacks in weeks.
       A security source in Kyiv told AFP that a drone strike on the Morozovsk air 
base in Russia's southern Rostov region had destroyed at least six Russian 
planes and "another eight were heavily damaged".
       "This is an important special operation that will significantly reduce the 
combat potential of the Russians," the source said.
       There was no immediate response from Moscow and AFP was unable to verify 
the claims.
       Russia said 44 of the 53 drones Kyiv fired overnight targeted the southern 
Rostov region, which borders Ukraine and is the location of several military 
sites, including the command headquarters for the invasion of Ukraine.
       Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said on Friday that investigators were 
injured while inspecting a drone that had been downed near the air base.
       "In the Morozovsk district, not far from the airfield, an explosive device 
in one of the downed drones detonated around noon, injuring eight people 
according to preliminary data," he said in a post on Telegram.
       He said earlier that the attack inflicted only "insignificant damage" to a 
power station and blew out windows in an apartment building.
       Russia rarely comments on Ukrainian claims of successful strikes.
       - 'Completely destroyed' -
       
       Both sides also reported shelling and injuries in frontline towns and 
villages.
       The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) humanitarian organisation said a 3:00 am 
Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian-held town of Pokrovsk had "completely 
destroyed" its office in the town. 
       In a post on X, MSF said it "condemns this attack on the office, which 
supports its emergency medical humanitarian assistance".
       Ukrainian police said five civilians were wounded in the strike.
       Other Ukrainian drone attacks in the early hours of Friday targeted 
Russia's Belgorod and Kursk border regions, as well as Saratov and Krasnodar.
       In Saratov, the governor said a drone had targeted Engels, a city around 
500 kilometres (300 miles) from the border.
       Engels is home to a major Russian air base that has previously been hit. 
Meanwhile, a Russian strike in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at 
least three people and wounded another 13, the regional governor said on Friday.
       Earlier, Ukraine's air force said Russia launched five missiles and 13 
drones at its territory overnight.
       Kyiv said it downed the 13 drones but did not say anything about the 
missiles, which targeted the northeastern Kharkiv region.
       Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that a recent wave of attacks 
against Ukraine was "retribution" for Kyiv's attempts to hit its own energy 
facilities.
       And a pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova claimed Friday that an 
explosive drone hit a military base, without causing injuries or major damage, 
three weeks after a similar incident.
       Officials in the break-away region of Transnistria said a radar 
installation appeared to be the target of the attack, without directly blaming 
Ukraine.