Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that the armed forces should use new advanced weapons systems in the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

“It is necessary to continue the modernization and creation of promising systems with their further use in the course of a special military operation,” Shoigu said at a meeting with high-ranking generals in the Ministry of Defense.

Sergei Shoigu, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, did not specify which advanced weapons would be used, but said he wanted to discuss with the generals new ways to improve artillery and missile strikes.

“New ways of using them in battle are being tested,” Shogu said without giving details.

He noted that Ukraine’s defense is being improved through the use of Tornado-S long-range missile systems or powerful Malka artillery systems.

“This makes it possible to effectively hit foreign missile and artillery systems,” he said, according to images released by state television.

The conflict in Ukraine, Europe’s bloodiest since World War II, has so far killed tens of thousands of people on both sides and raised fears of a much wider conflict between Russia and NATO, the US-led alliance. Reuters.

Separately, AFP reported that Russia on Wednesday said it had seized three villages near Bakhmut, a now largely destroyed town in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces have been trying to take since the summer.

“After offensive operations, the Russian military liberated the settlements of Bilogorivka and Pershe Travnia (in Ukrainian – Ozaryanivka),” the Ministry of Defense reported in the afternoon.

The first village is located approximately 25 km north of Bakhmut, and the second approximately 20 km south.

Earlier in the day, the ministry announced the capture of Andriivka south of Bakhmut (Source Agerpres).