Aged between three and 17 "all the children are in a serious condition," Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Ukraine's southern region of Mykolaiv, said on Telegram.

He said a girl had lost an eye in the attack.

Voznesensk is located about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the nuclear plant at Pivdennoukrainsk, Ukraine's second largest, and 70 kilometres (40 miles) from Mykolaiv, the regional capital.

The strikes hit an apartment building and several homes in the city, which is home to 30,000 people, the emergency services said on Facebook, showing a badly damaged building.

The region, at the forefront of the war, suffers regular strikes.

"Voznesensk. The terrorist country called Russia hit a residential building," presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian army meanwhile said they had downed four Kalibr high-precision sea-launched cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea near the central city of Dnipro.

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, a city in the Kherson region which has been occupied by Russia, said the Ukrainian army had bombed a Russian military base in the city.

The Ukrainian army meanwhile reported Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region -- which has been partially controlled by Russian proxies since 2014 -- saying "fighting is continuing".

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