Eight dead in Ukrainian shelling of Russia-controlled town, Russia-installed official says

TOKMAK: A Russia-installed official in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region said on Saturday that shelling by Ukraine's military had killed eight people, including two children, in the town of Tokmak.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said that 18 people had been wounded in the shelling on Friday night.

Another Russian-installed local official, Vladimir Rogov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that five houses had been partially destroyed.

Reuters could not independently verify the account of events.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces and formally annexed by Moscow since the February 2022 invasion.