Ukraine fighting ‘intense’ battles in Donetsk region

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine said on Friday that Russian forces were concentrating their firepower on the Pokrovsk front in the eastern Donetsk region, where overnight strikes wounded at least six people.

The Kremlin annexed the industrial territory in late 2022, months after invading, and its forces are making incremental gains there.

“The Pokrovsk front... is the most intense in terms of enemy attacks,” the Ukrainian military said in a briefing.

In the war-battered town of Selydove near the front line in Donetsk, officials said six people were wounded by Russian aerial attacks overnight.

AFP journalists on the scene hours after the attack saw the interior of a supermarket reduced to heaps of metal and glass under a partially gutted roof.

The force of the explosion, which tore open a neighbouring building, also blew out the windows of residential buildings across the street.

Oleg, a 57-year-old resident, said he heard a strange noise at around 9.00 pm on Thursday evening. He thought it was several helicopters flying overhead, until he saw the explosion.