authorities in Kyiv say. Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were also captured in the border village in the northeastern Sumy region. The attack occurred at night on Saturday, when about 100 Russian troops attacked the village, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for Ukraine's military Joint Forces Task Force.

The civilians were first rounded up in a church and then taken across the border to Russia, he told the BBC. It was unusual for invading forces to take civilians to Russia before establishing a firm presence in occupied territory, he added.

Russia has so far not commented on the fate of civilians from Hrabovske, but reports from Ukraine indicate they may have been taken to Belgorod, a major regional centre about 50 miles (80 km) inside Russia. "My friends' mother has been taken there. There is no way of contacting her even though they tried," said Volodymyr Bitsak, a member of the Sumy regional council. "As far as I know, they've been taken to the city of Belgorod and are being held at an unknown location."

Lt-Col Trehubov told the BBC on Tuesday evening that fighting was still ongoing in the southern part of Hrabovske, but Deep State, a Ukrainian website monitoring the battlefield situation, said later that the village had been captured by Russian forces. The defence ministry in Moscow said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had been "hit" at Hrabovske and several other villages in Sumy region. Meanwhile, in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said it had withdrawn troops from the embattled town of Siversk "to preserve the lives of our soldiers". Russia's capture of the town brings its forces closer to the Donetsk "fortress belt cities" of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, about 35km (21 miles) to the west. (BBC)