KYIV:
Russian strikes
on the Ukrainian central city of
Pavlograd
on Friday killed one person and injured more than 50 others, including three children, authorities said.
Russia has stepped up its
aerial attacks
on
Ukraine
since Kyiv launched an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk region last month.
Five
Iskander ballistic missiles
were fired from Russian territory toward Pavlograd in the central
Dnipropetrovsk region
, according to Ukraine's air force.
One person died and 55 others were injured, the interior ministry said.
The attack led to "several fires in the city", including in an apartment in a high-rise building, said regional governor Sergiy Lysak.
He added among the injured were a nine-year-old girl and two boys aged 11 and four.
Russia regularly hits Pavlograd, home to a
chemical plant
that produces explosives.
The city is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from fighting raging in the neighbouring Donetsk region as Russian forces advance there.
It had a population of about 100,000 before the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Images of the strike shared by the interior ministry showed a badly damaged apartment building, where rescuers were working to evacuate residents.
Thick black smoke was coming out of several windows with blown-out glass, and in front of the building, tree branches were strewn all over the ground.
Earlier this week, on Wednesday, seven people died when Russia struck the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Russian strikes on a military training facility in the central city of Poltava killed 55 people, making it one of the deadliest single strikes of the invasion.