Eight people were also wounded when Russian forces hit the area with S-300 missiles. "The main blow was dealt to Pokrovsk and Rivne in the community of Myrnograd", the head of the Donetsk region, Vadim Filashkin, said on Telegram.

He released photographs showing rescue workers working through the debris of the attack which damaged six houses.

The town of Pokrovsk, which had a population of 60,000 before the war, had already been hit by a deadly bombardment last August, which left nine people dead and 82 injured.

The town is around fifty kilometres (30 miles) from the front line of the fighting.