KYIV, Ukraine, July 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava killed two people, wounded nearly a dozen and also struck a military recruitment centre, officials said Thursday.

The Ukrainian army reported there were "dead and wounded" at the recruitment office.

Moscow has stepped up its drone and missile bombardments on Ukraine as peace talks stall and concerns grow over further US military support for Kyiv.

The emergency services posted images of buildings on fire and rescue workers at the scene of the Poltava strike where cars were shown littered with debris.

"Two people were killed and 10 were wounded," the emergency services said.

While in Russia's Lipetsk region, debris from a Ukrainian drone killed an elderly woman and wounded two others, its governor said Thursday.

The debris fell on a building in Lipetsk, which lies about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Moscow, killing a woman in her seventies, Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram.

In another incident, Artamonov said residents in the city of Yelets in Lipetsk were evacuated after a drone hit their apartment building, with no casualties reported.

An official responsible for communications linked with Ukraine's national security council in Kyiv said a plant that makes "batteries for missile guidance and correction systems," was targeted.

Russia's defence ministry said Thursday it had destroyed 69 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly over its Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

Ukraine's air force, meanwhile, said it neutralised 40 Russian drones of the 52 launched overnight from late Wednesday.

In the Ukrainian city of Odesa, six people were wounded, including two children, in a Russian strike that hit a multi-storey residential building, regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram on Thursday.