Two women were killed and several others injured by Russian artillery fire that travelled across the Dnipro River and hit a village in southern Ukraine, local authorities said on Friday.

One of the injured is a doctor, Olexander Prokudin, military governor of the Kherson region, announced on Telegram where he posted that Russian troops fired 40 shells from a rocket artillery launcher at the village of Biloserka on the north bank of the Dnipro during the night.

Meanwhile, around 60 houses were damaged.

One woman was killed in her house.

The body of a second woman was later discovered under the rubble.

Russia occupied Biloserka, along with the rest of the Kherson region, in the spring of 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February of that year.

However, Russian forces were driven from the area in late autumn of 2022.

Since then, the wide lower reaches of the Dnipro have formed the front line in most places.

Russia’s Defence Ministry in Moscow announced, without specifying the exact location, that Russian artillery had knocked out the command centre of a Ukrainian battalion on the other bank of the river.

Separately, nine people were injured by Russian shelling in the city of Chuhuiv in the eastern region of Kharkiv, according to military governor Oleh Synyehubov.

Several buildings were damaged, while some cars were burnt.

The governor did not specify which weapons were used to fire on the city.

Chuhuiv is an important transport hub for supplying Ukrainian units on the east of Kharkiv. 

(dpa/NAN)