Ukraine troops are fiercely defending the eastern city of Avdiivka Saturday as Russian forces gained control of parts of the territory through non-stop shelling.

"For the fifth day already, the enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions around the city," Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the city, said on Ukrainian television, adding that the fighting is "very heated."

"They are trying to surround the city," Barabash added, claiming that Moscow was deploying "more new forces" to the area.

He described intense battles: "There is certainly no silence there at all. Shooting battles continue, both from the north and from the south of the city."

Kyiv's interior ministry said Russian shelling had "destroyed" a five-story building, burying a man in his sixties under the rubble.

It urged residents still in Avdiivka to evacuate.

Some 1,600 civilians are believed to be in the city, which had a pre-war population of 31,000.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv was holding its ground in Avdiivka, but Moscow claimed it had improved its positions there.

Kyiv also said Saturday that a Russian attack killed an 11-year-old boy in the eastern village of Bagatyr, also in the Donetsk region, some 80 kilometers west of Avdiivka.

"The boy turned 11 just two days ago," Ukrainian police said in a statement.

It said his 31-year-old mother and younger brother were wounded and taken to hospital following the attack, which damaged around 20 homes, a church and a school.

WITH AFP