Moscow’s forces are trying to seize full control of the frontline region, which it claimed to have annexed in 2022, months after invading.

Russia fired 11 guided aerial bombs on the village of Stepnogorsk, just a few kilometres from the frontline, late yesterday.

“A five-storey building was destroyed. A man was killed. Rescuers removed his body from under the rubble,” Zaporizhzhia’s Ukrainian governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

The strike comes amid an escalation in aerial attacks, including Russian drone strikes on the centre of Kyiv that killed two people in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Ukraine is fearing a possible renewed Russian offensive towards the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia, around 35km from the frontline and still under Ukrainian control.