MOSCOW (AFP) – One person was killed in a small Russian town when a shell fired in Ukraine hit a residential area across the border, regional authorities reportedly said Sunday.

“Around 9:20 am (0520 GMT) a shell flew on the territory of Donetsk from Ukrainian territory. Two residential houses were damaged, one person died,” Rostov regional authorities spokesman Alexander Titov told ITAR-TASS news agency.

Donetsk is a small Russian town just near the border with Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region, where Kiev-backed troops and pro-Russian separatists are fighting for the control of border checkpoints.