Kiev reports series of deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine

Ukraine has reported that nine people had been killed in five regions of the war-battered country, as Russia presses for gains on the front line where Kiev's troops are struggling.

In the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, two were killed in attacks on the city of Nikopol on the right bank of the Dnipro River, said governor Sergiy Lysak on Wednesday.

These were a 52-year-old man who received severe shrapnel wounds from shelling and a 54-year-old ambulance driver whose vehicle was hit by an attack drone, he said.

A missile attack earlier in the day on the eastern Sumy region that borders Russia killed two and wounded three, regional authorities said on social media.

The governor of the front-line Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, said three people had been killed in separate attacks Tuesday.

Deadliest attacks

Governor Vadym Filashkin said two people had been killed in the town of Toretsk and another person was killed in an attack on the frontline town of Selydove on Tuesday, which is routinely targeted by Russian forces.

In the southern Kherson region, which the Kremlin also claimed to have annexed in 2022 even though it is still fighting for control of the Black Sea territory, the governor said Russia had shelled housing and infrastructure facilities.

"One person died as a result of Russian aggression," said Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson's governor.

Last weekend, Russian forces carried out one of the single deadliest attacks in weeks on the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia, hitting a busy hardware store.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that the toll from the strike had risen to 19, after a 40-year-old employee of the store who sustained severe burns during the attack died in hospital.