(Reuters) - Ukrainian prosecutors said Russian shelling on Sunday killed three people in three different towns in Donetsk region, the focal point of the Russian military's slow drive along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front in the more than two-year-old war with Ukraine.

Prosecutors in Donetsk region, which Russia has annexed though it does not control all of its territory, said civilians had died in Siversk in the north of the region and further south in Krasnohorivka and Chasiv Yar.

Russia's military has advanced towards Chasiv Yar, the gateway to other cities in Donetsk region.

Prosecutors in Kharkiv region said a civilian also died near the town of Chuhuyev, southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, where at least 14 people were killed in an attack on a hardware store on Saturday.

Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield accounts.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski)