Russian strike in east Ukraine kills four, wounds dozens

Russian strikes on the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk killed four people and wounded dozens more on Monday, the governor of the Donetsk region said.

Over recent weeks, Moscow has concentrated its firepower on the eastern industrial region of Donetsk, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

"At least four people were killed and 34 wounded. These are the preliminary results of the strike on Pokrovsk," the region's governor Vadym Filashkin said.

"Among the wounded are two children aged 12 and 13. They are in a moderate to serious condition," he added in a statement on social media.

Filashkin said that Russian forces had fired two Iskander-M missiles at Pokrovsk, destroying and damaging several homes. The town had a pre-war population of around 61,000.

"This is one of the largest hostile attacks on civilians in recent times. Its final consequences are yet to be determined," Filashkin added.

Russian forces have been advancing towards Pokrovsk over recent months, since they captured the fortress town of Avdiivka in February.

Filashkin said separately that a 62-year-old man had been killed in a Russian attack on the town of Kurakhove further south of Pokrovsk.

"The Russians dropped a guided aerial missile on the town and an infrastructure facility was damaged," he said, without elaborating.

Filashkin said that Russian forces had killed a 63-year-old civilian in the town of Toretsk, which they began assaulting last week following a protracted lull.

Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk in late 2022, along with three other regions of Ukraine it had partially occupied.

Donetsk has been controlled in parts by Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014.