MOSCOW: A senior Russian proxy official in the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia said Thursday that two civilians had been killed by a Ukrainian drone.

The Kremlin claimed to have annexed Zaporizhzhia in late 2022 despite not fully controlling the industrial territory, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict.

“A man and a woman were killed as a result of a strike on a civilian car. Their four young children were orphaned,” the Russian-installed head of the region Evgeny Balitsky wrote on social media.

He said the children would be taken into care and provided with psychological assistance.

Russian drone attack injures seven in Ukraine’s Odesa, officials say

Drones are being used widely by both Russian and Ukrainian troops in frontline regions for surveillance, artillery targeting and as projectiles.

Ukrainian forces launched a highly-anticipated counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region last summer, which failed to win back territory except for several villages.

The brunt of the fighting moved to the eastern Donetsk region, which is also claimed by Moscow as Russian territory.