KYIV, Ukraine, July 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian drone and bomb fire killed at least six people across Ukraine's east and south, local authorities said Friday, as Russia resists US President Donald Trump's call to halt its invasion.

Moscow has escalated long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine's towns and cities as well as frontline assaults and shelling over the past weeks, defying Trump's warning it could face massive new sanctions if no peace deal is struck.

The latest strikes killed at least three people in the Dnipropetrovsk region -- an important industrial mining territory under increasing pressure from Russia's attacks.

"Administrative buildings, a shop and private houses have been damaged," Governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram after a morning drone attack caused a fire to break out in the region's Kamyanske district, where two were killed.

A 52-year-old man was killed in another drone attack elsewhere in the region.

And in the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions -- all of which are partially occupied by Russian forces -- attacks killed another three people.

Ukraine said Russia fired 35 long-range drones overnight -- a relatively low number compared to the several hundred Moscow is capable of launching.

Moscow said it shot down 73 Ukrainian drones over its territory, including 10 it said were heading for the capital Moscow.