Strikes kill toddler in Dnipro, Russia border areas evacuated

Ukrainian rescuers outside the city of Dnipro on Sunday recovered the body of a two-year-old girl from the rubble left by a Russian strike on a residential area.

On the other side of the border, Russian authorities asked villagers living in a heavily shelled district on the Ukraine border to leave their homes after deadly strikes prompted thousands to flee.

The Russian attack that hit the Pidhorodnenska suburb of the central city of Dnipro on Saturday came as Moscow has this week intensified aerial assaults on Ukraine.

"At night, a girl's body was retrieved from under the rubble of a house in the Pidhorodnenska community outside Dnipro, Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Sunday.

"She just turned two."

Officials said the strike killed the toddler, born in 2021, and wounded at least 22 others.

Five children were in hospital, including three boys who were in a critical condition.

Kyiv also said a Russian strike had hit an airfield in central Ukraine overnight, which Moscow appeared to confirm on Sunday, saying it had struck military air bases with long-range weapons overnight.

The attacks came at the end of a week that saw Russia launch a series of air assaults on Kyiv, including rare daytime strikes.