KYIV: A Russian missile strike on Thursday killed three people in the village of Shevchenkove in the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian troops were advancing, police said.

“A civilian woman died. Another woman died while being transported to a medical facility, and a civilian man was fatally wounded,” the police said.

Russia struck at 1300 GMT with an Iskander missile, according to preliminary data from the police.

The attack wounded three others, and damaged several houses, police said.

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Moscow’s forces are advancing in the region that borders Russia and are aiming to recapture the town of Kupiansk, which was occupied in the first year of the war.

Ukraine recaptured it in September 2022 as part of a lightning offensive that saw its forces regain large swathes of the Kharkiv region.

Outmanned Ukrainian troops are on the back foot across the front line in the Kharkiv and Donetsk region further south, ceding ground to better-equipped Russian troops.