Russian strike kills five in east Ukraine town, says Kyiv

RUSSIA | UKRAINE | STRIKE

A Russian strike on a humanitarian support center in an eastern Ukraine town killed five people, emergency services said on Friday, as Moscow's forces pushed to capture the entire industrial Donetsk region.

"The town of Kostyantynivka came under rocket fire during the night of March 24. "One of the rockets hit a one-story building," the emergency services said on Telegram, specifying that three women and two men had died.

The emergency services published images showing a one-story building with its roof caved in and debris strewn next to it, with rescue workers assessing the scene.

It said the victims included "three internally displaced women from Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar, and Opytne", nearby towns at the center of the conflict.

Kostyantynivka lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Bakhmut, an industrial city that has seen the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.

A statement by the regional prosecutor said the Russian military had fired an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system at Kostyantynivka.

Authorities in the southern region of Kherson, which is partially controlled by Russian forces, said meanwhile that one civilian had been killed by Russian strikes over the past 24 hours.