Moscow, Aug 14 (IANS): Russia said on Sunday it has hit targets in dozens of places in eastern Ukraine with missiles and artillery.

The attacks were concentrated in the Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday, dpa news agency reported.

In the neighbouring Kharkiv region, the village of Udy was captured, Moscow claimed. The Russian military also said that it has destroyed a fuel depot near Sloviansk.

The Ukrainian general staff in Kiev reported intense attacks in the east and south of the country. In the Donetsk region, an attempt by Russian forces to break through to Sloviansk had been repelled, it said.

Overall, Kiev said the situation is largely unchanged.

The information from the front line could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the leadership in the Russian republic of Chechnya said that it was sending new troops as well as "volunteers" to fight in Ukraine.

In a video purporting to be from the airport of the Chechen capital Grozny, uniformed men were ordered to carry out the "destruction" of Ukrainian nationalists.