The Russian armed forces have pushed deeper into Donbass, Ukraine said on Tuesday, announcing that Moscow's forces took control of Toshkiva, a village that lies between the two cities of Severdonetsk and Lysychansk on the frontline between the Russian and Ukrainian forces. The two forces have been fighting for the region for the past several weeks.

"As of today, according to our information, Toshkivka is controlled entirely by the Russians," Severodonetsk district chief Roman Vlasenko told Ukrainian television, adding that the battle for Donbass is "now in full swing".

Before the war, Toshkiva had a population of around 5,000. It is approximately 25 km south of Severodonetsk, a city that has been seeing intense fighting between Kiev and Moscow's forces.

"The entirety of the Lugansk region is now the epicenter of fighting between Ukraine and the Russian army," he revealed.

Russia repels attack on snake island

Moscow announced Tuesday that it had repelled a "mad" attempt launched by Kiev's forces on Snake Island in the Black Sea, which had been under Russian control since the early days of the Ukraine war.

The island is a highly strategic location off the coast of Ukraine and Romania, and Moscow says Kiev has tried to recapture it several times.

"On June 20 at 5:00 am, the Kiev regime undertook another mad attempt to take possession of Snake Island," Russia's defense ministry said in a briefing. 

The Ukrainian forces, Moscow said, had planned on launching large-scale bombing of the island via air raids and artillery fire before landing and capturing it.

15 Ukrainian attack and reconnaissance drones took part in the airstrike while missile launchers and howitzers fired at the island, the ministry revealed.

Russia's air defense systems intercepted all the Ukrainian projectiles and downed 13 drones, forcing Kiev's forces to refrain from landing on Snake Island.

Russian radars had detected a US RQ-4 "Global Hawk" reconnaissance drone in the area, the ministry added.

When the Ukrainian forces failed in their bid to take over the island, Moscow said, they resorted to attacking oil rigs off the coast of Crimea.

Crimea governor Sergey Aksyonov cast the blame on Kiev's forces for the attack, revealing that three people sustained injuries as a result of the attacks on the Black Sea platform, in addition to seven people that went missing.

Russian senator for Crimea Olga Kovitidi revealed that the authorities were still conducting search missions for the missing persons, while those injured are currently receiving medical attention at health facilities, but their condition is not critical.

He revealed that the authorities were still conducting search missions for the missing persons, while those injured are currently receiving medical attention at health facilities, but their condition is not critical.

Days ahead of the attack, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that more than 50 Ukrainian generals and officers were killed in a strike on a command center in the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said long-range, high-precision Kalibr missiles launched from the sea hit the headquarters of the Ukrainian forces near the village of Shiroka Dacha in the Dnipropetrovsk province, while a work meeting for the leaders of the Alexandria strategic operational group was being held.

At the beginning of the Ukraine war, the authorities of the Lugansk People's Republic announced that 200 tons of diesel fuel caught fire as a result of an explosion at an oil storage facility in the city of Rovinki as a result of the Ukrainian bombing.