Russian attacks kill several in east Ukraine, as Moscow's forces advance

Russian bombardments on the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk have killed six people, the governor of the region said, as Moscow's forces advance in the war-battered territory.

"In the morning the Russians killed four people and destroyed a house in Izmailivka," the regional official Vadym Filashkin said on social media on Wednesday.

He added that two more people were killed in separate attacks near Chasiv Yar that damaged more than a dozen homes.

Kiev urged residents of the region, which has been partially controlled by Russian proxy forces since 2014, to evacuate after the Kremlin began its attacks.

The industrial region has suffered the worst fighting of the war and the Kremlin claimed to have annexed it alongside three other territories in 2022.

In addition, Russian forces reportedly took control of the settlement of Komyshivka, the state TASS news agency said on Wednesday, citing the Russian Defence Ministry.

Ukraine's Kursk incursion

Meanwhile, Russia said its forces defused unexploded US-supplied munitions fired by Ukraine that were shot down just 5 kilometres from Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant, which Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of trying to strike.

The announcement was made by Russia's National Guard and accompanied by a video of the unexploded munitions and of sappers blowing them up on Wednesday.

It came a day after Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, inspected the plant, which he said was vulnerable due to a lack of a protective dome that could shield it from missiles, drones or artillery.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian find, and TRT World could not independently verify the location of the video.

Ukrainian forces punched through Russia's western border into the Kursk region on Augugust 6 in a surprise incursion which is still ongoing, and fighting has taken place within about 40 kilometres of the nuclear facility.