Deaths reported following Russian shelling of frontline villages in Ukraine

Russian shelling of frontline villages in eastern Ukraine has killed four people while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian attack ripped through a nine-storey residential building, leaving one dead, officials said.

The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 600-mile front line.

Moscow has stepped up air strikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

The shelling of the frontline village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also left five injured, said governor Vadym Filashkin. He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.

In Dnipro, at least one person died and 12 were injured, including a seven-month-old girl, after a Russian strike destroyed the top four floors of the apartment block on Friday evening, regional head Serhii Lysak said.

Kyiv has also struck back at Russia with its own aerial attacks.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said on Saturday.

Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, governor Alexey Smirnov said on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country had lost about 80% of its thermal power (Laurent Cipriani/AP)

In its morning statement, the Russian Defence Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

It did not give information on the reported strike in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country had lost about 80% of its thermal power and one third of its hydroelectric power in Russian strikes.

Discussing the attack in Dnipro, Mr Zelensky said it was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defence systems. The Ukrainian air force said on Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones overnight.

“This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high-quality air defence systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror,” he said.