ISTANBUL

Ukraine said on Saturday that nine people were killed in the country’s Donetsk and Kharkiv regions due to Russian airstrikes.

A statement by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that four people were killed and six others injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where it claimed Russia attacked settlements in the region's Bohodukhiv, Izium and Kupiansk districts during the day.

Separately, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote in an updated statement on Telegram that five people were killed and five others injured due to strikes in the city of Kostyantynivka, almost 12 kilometers (7,4 miles) southwest of the front-line city of Chasiv Yar.

Filashkin initially said that at least three people were killed and two injured, adding: “Once again, I urge everyone: take care of yourself! Evacuate!”

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the strikes.

Local authorities in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions have called on thousands to evacuate amid Moscow's continued advances in the eastern part of the country, despite Ukraine's ongoing incursion into Russia's Kursk region since the night of Aug. 5-6.