KYIV: Russian forces killed five civilians on Thursday in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have been slowly gaining ground, regional officials said.

The Kremlin has centred its offensive capabilities on Donetsk, a region it claimed to have annexed months after launching its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Regional prosecutors said Russian forces had killed a married couple in a village near the town of Kostyantynivka, a civilian hub in the industrial area.

“An 85-year-old local resident died as a result of a hit to a residential building. They tried to save his wife, but she died during emergency treatment,” they said in a statement.

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Russia forces also attacked Grodivka, killing three women aged 26, 32 and 77, prosecutors said.

Three other civilians were wounded in separate attacks on the region, they added.

Outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian troops have been struggling to hold back determined Russian assaults in the region over recent months.