Three people were killed and four injured in the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said, while two men in their 50s were reported killed in shelling near the town of Toretsk about 20km to the southeast.

Filashkin said in a post on the Telegram social media channel that three men aged between 24 and 69 were killed and a multi-storey block, administrative building and shop were damaged in the attack on Kostyantynivka.

Three others were lightly wounded and received medical treatment, he said. Suspilne public broadcaster quoted Anastasiia Medvedeva, a spokesman for Donetsk prosecutor’s office, as saying the fourth injured person was a 57-year-old woman who suffered a shrapnel wound and a head injury.

In separate shelling, Suspilne quoted Medvedeva as saying a man aged 52 and a man aged 53 were killed just outside Toretsk, a focus of recent Russian offences also in Donetsk region.

Kostyantynivka, which before the war was an industrial town of around 70,000 people, has seen many of its residents leave as the frontline has moved closer through the 30-month Russian invasion. It has been hit regularly by missiles, bombs and artillery.

In August, authorities announced a compulsory evacuation of families with children from the city due to the danger posed by Russia’s advances.