KYIV, Ukraine, March 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Russia and Ukraine said Friday that overnight aerial attacks had killed civilians, as both countries launched a wave of artillery and drone fire at each other.

Kyiv said a Russian drone strike killed two people in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, and that a shelling attack on the frontline Zaporizhzhia region killed one woman.

Moscow-installed officials said overnight shelling by Kyiv's army on the Russian-held city of Donetsk killed three children while shelling of the border Belgorod region left a member of its territorial defence unit dead.

Ukraine's national police said in a statement on Telegram that "Russian troops attacked the Vinnytsia region with drones, there are dead and wounded".

"As a result of the enemy attack, a 52-year-old man was killed and his 53-year-old wife died in hospital," it said.

The Vinnytsia region is more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the frontlines.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region -- which Moscow claims to have annexed and partially controls -- a 76-year-old woman was killed when fragments of a Russian shell hit her while she was in her garden, Ukrainian Governor Ivan Fedorov said.

- 'Trying to break through' -

Moscow-installed officials in the Russian-held city of Donetsk said an attack there had killed three children.

"As a result of barbaric overnight shelling ... a direct hit was recorded on a house in a residential area," Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, said in a post on Telegram.

"Three children died. A girl born in 2007, a girl born in 2021, and a boy born in 2014," he added.

Russian forces last month captured the city of Avdiivka, just a few kilometres to the north of Donetsk.

It said pushing Ukrainian forces back would help protect residents of areas under its control from shelling.

The head of Ukraine's army said Friday that Russia had launched a wave of attacks to try to advance further in the area.

"The enemy has concentrated its main efforts and has been trying to break through ... for several days in a row," Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a statement after visiting troops on the frontlines around Avdiivka.

Ukraine's air force said earlier that Russia fired 27 Iranian-style drones and eight missiles at its territory overnight. It claimed to have shot them all down.

Russia also said Ukraine launched drone and artillery attacks on areas closer to the countries' shared border. 

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on Telegram: "The town of Grayvoron came under Ukrainian army shelling."

"There is a dead man. He is a member of our territorial self-defence unit," he said.

Russia's defence ministry said Friday it had downed drones and rockets over Belgorod and the Kaluga region, southwest of the capital Moscow.

The governor of Russia's Lipetsk region also said Friday two drones were downed in a district around 300 kilometres (180 miles) away from Ukraine.