KYIV (Reuters) – Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine killed at least four people and wounded 10 more on Thursday, regional authorities said.
A thermobaric ammunition attack on the town of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region wounded 10 people, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app. A woman who was admitted to hospital in a serious condition after the attack died later, he added.
“The enemy struck near a shop and the town market,” Syniehubov said in his initial statement.
Later he added that a two-storey retail building had been damaged, along with a dozen kiosks and the windows of nearby homes.
Russia occupied Kupiansk in the early days of its 2022 invasion but was pushed out by a lightning Ukrainian counter-offensive in September that year.
In recent months, Moscow’s forces have been advancing slowly back towards the town and are now less than 4 km (2.5 miles) away from its northern outskirts, according to open-source maps.
Russian shelling later in the day killed three people in the area around the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.
Russian troops have been stepping up their advance towards Pokrovsk in recent months, moving as close as 8 km from its outskirts.
Russian media and war bloggers reported on Thursday that Russian forces had advanced into the coal mining town of Selydove, about 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the most intense Russian assaults along the entire front line were currently taking place in the Pokrovsk front, including near Selydove.
However, the General Staff did not say whether or not the Russians had entered the town.
(This story has been refiled to remove repeated text from end of story)
(Reporting by Max Hunder, Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Gareth Jones)
