5 killed in Russian attack in Ukraine's Donetsk

Kyiv: At least five people were killed in an attack by Russia in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, officials said.

Three people were killed and four injured in the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said on Saturday, while two men in their 50s were reported killed in shelling near the town of Toretsk about 20 km (12 miles) to the southeast.

Filashkin said in a post on the Telegram social media channel that three men aged between 24 and 69 were killed and a multi-storey block, administrative building and shop were damaged in the attack on Kostyantynivka.

Three others were lightly wounded and received medical treatment, he said.

Suspilne public broadcaster quoted Anastasiia Medvedeva, a spokesperson for Donetsk prosecutor's office, as saying the fourth injured person was a 57-year-old woman who suffered a shrapnel wound and a head injury.

In separate shelling, Suspilne quoted Medvedeva as saying a man aged 52 and a man aged 53 were killed just outside Toretsk, a focus of recent Russian offences also in Donetsk region.

Kostyantynivka, which before the war was an industrial town of around 70,000 people, has seen many of its residents leave as the frontline has moved closer through the 30-month Russian invasion. It has been hit regularly by missiles, bombs and artillery.

In August, authorities announced a compulsory evacuation of families with children from the city due to the danger posed by Russia's advances.

In Ukraine, the Air force reported on Saturday that air defences were scrambled across the country to defend against a massive overnight drone attack by Russia. The air force said 67 long-range drones were shot down.

On Friday evening, one person was reported killed in the southeastern city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region as the result of missile strikes, and that 64 people were injured in the region.

Russian forces were also continuing to push toward the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region, where RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service captured footage from near the front line that showed the village of Novohrodivka ablaze.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Saturday said that its forces had seized the village of Kalynove, which lies just 25 km southeast of Pokrovsk, a key supply and logistics hub for Ukraine's frontline troops.