KYIV   -   Russian bombardment on the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk killed six people on Wednesday, the governor of the region said, as Moscow announced it had taken another village in the area. The industrial region has suffered the worst fighting of Russia’s invasion and the Kremlin claimed to have annexed it alongside three other territories in 2022.

“In the morning the Russians killed four people and destroyed a house in Izmailivka,” the regional official Vadym Filashkin said on social media.

He added that two more people were killed in separate attacks near Chasiv Yar that damaged more than a dozen homes. Russia’s defence ministry announced on Wednesday that Russian forces had taken another settlement, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Regional authorities have recently ordered large-scale mandatory evacuations with Russian forces advancing towards Pokrovsk, once home to around 60,000 people.  Filashkin said that 2,718 people, including 392 children, had been evacuated from frontline areas on Tuesday. Kyiv urged residents of the region, which has been partially controlled by Russian proxy forces since 2014, to evacuate after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine.