Russian attacks targeting the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv have killed at least four people and wounded more than two dozen others, officials say, further dimming hopes for peace.

The first wave on Ukraine's second-largest city on Saturday was a large Russian drone-and-missile attack in the early hours.

It killed at least three people and wounded 21 others, according to local officials.

In the afternoon, Russia dropped aerial bombs on the city centre, killing at least one person and wounding five more, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Mr Terekhov said the strikes also damaged 18 apartment buildings and 13 private homes and it was "the most powerful attack" on the city since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

The warring sides also accused each other of trying to sabotage a planned prisoner exchange, nearly a week after Kyiv embarrassed the Kremlin with a surprising drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia.

Saturday's barrage, the latest in near-daily widescale attacks on Ukraine, included aerial glide bombs that have become part of a fierce Russian onslaught.

Kharkiv residents describe fiery trap

As firefighters and emergency workers bustled around attack sites in Kharkiv, residents described the strikes that damaged their homes and nearly took their lives on Saturday morning.

Alina Belous said she had tried to extinguish flames with buckets of water to rescue a young girl trapped inside a burning building who had called out for help.

"We were trying to put it out ourselves with our buckets, together with our neighbours. Then the rescuers arrived and started helping us put out the fire, but there was smoke and they worried that we couldn't stay there. When the ceiling started falling off, they took us out," she said.

Local resident Vadym Ihnachenko said that he thought at first that it was a neighbouring building going up in flames.

"But when we saw sparks coming from the top, we realised it was our building," he said.

'More pressure on Moscow is required'

Ukraine's air force said Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defences shot down 87 drones and seven missiles.

Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in an X post.

"To put an end to Russia's killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine," he said.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces carried out a night-time strike on Ukrainian military targets, including ammunition depots, drone assembly workshops and weaponry repair stations.

There was no comment from Moscow on the reports of casualties in Kharkiv.

Children among the wounded

Kharkiv's regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said the morning's attacks saw two districts in the city struck with three missiles, five aerial glide bombs and 48 drones.

Among the wounded were two children, a baby boy and a 14-year-old girl, he added.

Six people are believed to be trapped under the rubble of an industrial facility in Kharkiv's Kyiv district, the Kharkiv prosecutor's office said in a statement on Telegram.

Contact with those trapped was lost and rescue attempts have been ongoing since early afternoon, it said, without naming the facility.

Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry said that its forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, over the country's south and west, including near the capital.

Drone debris wounded two civilians in the suburbs of Moscow, local governor Andrei Vorobyov reported.

No breakthrough on a peace deal

A US-led diplomatic push for a settlement has brought two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, though the negotiations delivered no significant breakthroughs.

Both sides remain far apart on their terms for an end to the fighting.

On Friday, Russia struck six Ukrainian territories, killing at least six people and wounding about 80.

Among the dead were three emergency responders in Kyiv, one person in Lutsk and two people in Chernihiv.

AP

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.