In a daily briefing posted on Telegram, the defence ministry said its troops had "liberated" Ukrainsk, home to more than 10,000 before Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.

The town is one of the more significant conquests in recent weeks for Russia, whose troops have claimed control of a string of small villages and settlements as they push forward.

Ukrainsk lies around 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of the city of Donetsk, the capital of the region Moscow claims to have annexed.

Moscow's forces are seeking to gain control of the entire Donetsk region and have demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from there, as well as from the Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as a precondition to opening peace talks.