Star Metro - Three killed as Russia strikes apartment building in war-torn Kharkiv

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky posted footage of the torn-off facade of an apartment block and a crater outside.

"Russian terrorists have again hit Kharkiv with guided bombs," he wrote on Telegram after the latest attack on Ukraine's second largest city, announcing three dead while rescuers still cleared debris.

Interior minister Igor Klymenko said there were 29 injured.

Regional governor Oleg Synegubov said two children had been hospitalised and "only civilian infrastructure was damaged".

Kharkiv is close to the border with Russia, which launched an offensive in the region in May, taking significant territory. It has increasingly targeted the city with air launched bombs.

In May, a guided bomb attack on a hardware store killed 16 people and wounded dozens.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said last month that Russia has dropped almost 10,000 guided bombs on Ukraine this year.

"This Russian terror with guided bombs must be stopped and can be stopped. We need strong decisions from our partners so that we can destroy Russian terrorists and Russian combat aircraft where they are," Zelensky said.

Russia also launched 16 cruise missiles and 13 attack drones at energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine's military said.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said this was Russia's "eighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities" in three months.

More than two years into the Russian invasion, missile and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine's electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from the European Union.

Russia said its troops "carried out a group strike with long-range high-precision weaponry from air and sea and also drones on Ukrainian energy facilities that power arms production".

The defence ministry said strikes also targeted warehouses containing munitions and "air-launched weapons provided to the Ukrainian military by western countries".

"All the set targets were hit," the ministry said, justifying the strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russia's energy network.

Ukraine's energy ministry said equipment at operator Ukrenergo "facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions was damaged".

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of the Lviv region, said one Russian attack started a fire at "a critical energy infrastructure facility".

Ukrenergo said two employees were wounded and hospitalised in Zaporizhzhia, where Europe's biggest nuclear plant is located.

Russian attacks have destroyed half of Ukraine's energy capacity, according to Zelensky.

He has repeatedly urged allies to send more air-defence systems to protect the country's vital infrastructure.

In southern Zaporizhzhia, Russian shelling killed one civilian and destroyed residential buildings and infrastructure, according to the regional military administration.

Russia controls a part of the region,including its nuclear plant.

The Russian-appointed administration said Ukrainian attacks had damaged a substation linked to the plant but did not compromise nuclear safety.

- Donetsk and Lugansk -

Frontline clashes were reported Saturday in the Donetsk region area near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where Moscow "continues to increase the pace of offensive actions, deploying significant forces," Kyiv's military said.

Russia's defence ministry said troops had improved positions in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the Kharkiv region.

Five civilians were killed by Russian shelling in frontline areas of the Donetsk region, regional head Vadym Filashkin said.

In the southern Kherson region, a policeman manning a checkpoint was killed by a drone, Ukraine's police said.

The head of Russian authorities in the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk and the nearby town of Gorlivka had come under heavy attack from Ukraine.

Three men working for a construction firm were killed by a rocket releasing cluster munitions, he said.

Three more were wounded by a drone attack on a civilian minibus, Pushilin added, and another man was wounded by an anti-personnel mine.

In Russia's southern Belgorod region, a man was killed in the shelling of an business near the border with Ukraine's Kharkiv, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

F.T. Michaud--SMC