Local official: Three civilians were killed and five injured in Russian attacks in the Donetsk region

Russian attacks in the past 24 hours in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk have killed three civilians and injured five, a local official said on Friday, August 16th.

Russian forces are trying to capture the city of Pokrovsk, which is an important logistics center.

The eastern region of Donetsk, partially occupied by Russian troops, is regularly exposed to their shelling and airstrikes. Ukrainian authorities state that capturing this region is a priority for Moscow.

The number of skirmishes reported by the Ukrainian army on the Pokrovsk Front in the last 24 hours dropped to 41 from 58 compared to the previous day. Some of the heaviest battles of the war were fought in this area.

The governor of the region, Vadim Filashkin, said that three people were injured in the attack in the Selidove area in the district around Pokrovsko. He said that six buildings were damaged.

One person was killed in the village of Nikolayevka, and two others were injured in the town of Kostjantinovka west of Bakhmut, a devastated town that Russia captured last year after months of heavy fighting.

Two more people died in the village of Verhniokamjanka, Filashkin said. Nine residential buildings and eight houses were also damaged in the district, the governor added.

Russian troops stepped up attacks on the Pokrovsk front this Sunday after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on August 6 and said they had advanced 35 kilometers in Russia's Kursk region.

The Russian state agency TASS, citing the Ministry of Defense of Russia, reported that Russian forces took control of the village of Serhiyivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Reuters reported, stating that it could not independently verify the report from the battlefield.