Russian strike near Kharkiv kills four, including children, official says

A Russian strike has killed at least four people, including three young children, in a town west of Kharkiv, a Ukrainian official says.

Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said two boys, both 1, a two-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man died after a drone hit a house they were staying in.

A 35-year-old pregnant woman and another woman, 76, were injured in the strike on Bohodukhiv, Synegubov said.

Tuesday night's attack on Bohodukhiv comes as Moscow renews strikes after a week-long pause US President Donald Trump had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe as a fierce cold swept Ukraine.

Russian forces also dropped seven bombs on the city of Slovyansk around 12:00 on Tuesday, Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram. Two people, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed.

Bohodukhiv was hit by Russian forces earlier in the week.

On Monday, overnight drone strikes across the country cut power to tens of thousands and killed at least four people, including a mother and her 10-year-old son in Bohodukhiv, Ukrainian officials said, according to Reuters.

Bohodukhiv is west of Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv, where a power plant was damaged earlier in February.

Russian forces have increased pressure on the area by targeting transport and energy infrastructure with a record number of ballistic missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

A state of emergency has been declared over the energy situation in the Kharkiv region by local authorities.

It comes after a so-called "energy truce", which was meant to allow Ukraine's energy sector a reprieve during -20c temperatures, expired last week

Zelensky has said the US wants the war with Russia to end by June, and that both sides had been invited to the US for talks next week.

Meanwhile, a massive attack by Ukrainian drones on Volzhsky, in the Volgograd region in Russia, was reported on Wednesday night.

According to Andrei Bocharov, the Volgograd Region Governor, an apartment was damaged in the strike and a fire broke out at a factory.