KYIV: Three people including a 12-year-old boy were killed in Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have claimed steady advances in recent weeks, local authorities said on Monday.

The head of the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in late 2022, said two people were killed and another wounded by Russian attacks on the village of Mykhaylivka.

“A 12-year-old boy is among the dead,” the official, Vadim Filashkin, announced on social media, describing two aerial attacks 30 minutes apart that left several homes damaged.

Russian forces firm control of offensive line near Kharkiv, officials say

Separately, one person was killed and two wounded in a Russian rocket attack in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, where Moscow’s forces have recently captured several villages, the governor said.

Kharkiv borders Russia and has been under persistent shelling since the Kremlin ordered its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian forces launched a renewed ground offensive there last month.

Russia targeted Slobozhanske, southeast of the region’s main city, also called Kharkiv, around midnight local time, Governor Oleg Synegubov said.

“Houses were damaged. One man died. Another man and a woman were wounded,” Synegubov said on social media.

Washington last week gave Ukraine limited permission to use Western-supplied weapons to strike some military targets on Russian territory as part of Kyiv’s efforts to fend off attacks on Kharkiv.