Russian attacks across eastern Ukraine have killed at least 11 people, while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian strike 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.

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 front-line village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also injured five people, said governor Vadym Filashkin.

Ukrainian soldiers fire on Russian positions along the front line
Vladimir Putin has declared that Moscow is not seeking quick gains and would stick to the current strategy of advancing slowly (AP)

He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.

A further seven people were killed on Saturday afternoon in Russian shelling on the town of Vilniansk, including two children, governor Ivan Fedorov said.

Ten more were injured, while infrastructure was also damaged, he wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, 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, said regional head Serhii Lysak. Rescuers confirmed that several residents remain missing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Dnipro attack 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.

A Russian combat helicopter firing rockets during a mission over Ukraine
Russian troops are forging through Ukraine’s defences along the front line (Russian defence ministry press service via AP)

“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.

Russian officials also reported Ukrainian attacks, with a drone strike killing five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said.

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

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.

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.

The Ukrainian government also responded Saturday to a statement from the Belarusian military saying it had increased its forces along Ukraine’s northern border in response to what it described as security threats.

The announcement came after Belarus’ border agency claimed its troops downed a Ukrainian drone that had flown across the border to gather intelligence.

Kyiv denied the accusations, which it described as Russian propaganda.

“The Russians’ task is simple — to draw more of our forces (to the Belarusian border), Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation said in a statement. “Any information about our activity in the border area is a lie.”

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has close ties with Russia and allowed Moscow to use his country’s territory to invade Ukraine in February 2022.