Russian strikes kill 4, wound 23 in east Ukraine

An aerial view of the destroyed Novyy district in the town of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[AFP]

Russian attacks killed four and wounded nearly two dozen others in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine on Friday, officials said.

Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region, which it claims to have annexed and has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed forces since 2014.

Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said a 32-year-old woman had been killed and 20 others were wounded by Russian shelling in the town of Komar, damaging homes, shops, and an administrative building.

Filashkin said that one person was killed and another was wounded in a Russian Smerch rocket attack on the town of Ukrainsk.

"It is dangerous to stay here, as well as in the rest of Donetsk region," he wrote on social media.

Two more were killed and two were wounded in the town of Selydove which lies near a sector of the front line where Russian forces are advancing, he said.

Further north in the Donetsk region, Russian forces are pushing towards the hilltop settlement of Chasiv Yar.

Images distributed by Ukrainian forces show rows of destroyed and smoldering Soviet-era housing blocks in the town.

Separately, Russian-installed officials in part of Donetsk under Moscow's control said three were killed by Ukrainian shelling on the town of Volnovakha.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Ukraine must abandon four regions in the east and south -- including Donetsk -- if Kyiv wants peace.