There was no mention of the villages in official Ukrainian accounts of Wednesday's fighting in an area that Ukrainian forces have been trying to secure for weeks.
Unofficial accounts and bloggers acknowledged that part of the village was held by Russian forces, but dismissed any notion it was fully under Russian control.
Oleksandr Shtupun, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said Russian front line shelling and air strikes had doubled following an end to several days of rain.
Shtupun told national television that Russian troops were sending waves of up to 20 armoured vehicles at a time in attempting to move on Ukrainian lines.
Russian forces, he said, were now within 9 km of the town.
Persons:
Nuzhnenko, Khromove, Oleksandr Shtupun, Shtupun, Serhiy Zgurets, Ron Popeski, Oleksandr Kozhukhar, Daniel Wallis
Organizations:
Radio Free, Radio Liberty, REUTERS, Russia's Defence Ministry, Russian, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Avdiivka, Ukraine, Donetsk region, Radio Free Europe, Donetsk, Kyiv, Bakhmut, Russian, Ukrainian, Zaporizhzhia, Kupiansk