Belgorod sits directly across the border from Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region, an area that has seen intense fighting since Russia launched a major ground assault there on May 10.

"Several air targets were shot down as they approached the village of Belenkoye. To our great sorrow, one civilian was killed," Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

One civilian in the village of Belenkoye was injured, while a Ukrainian aerial attack near the border town of Shebekino wounded another, he said.

Belenkoye is about 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Ukraine, while Shebekino lies directly across the border from Vovchansk -- a town at the epicentre of Moscow's new ground assault.

Belgorod and other regions along the Russian border have been frequently hit by what the Kremlin calls indiscriminate Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army launched the new offensive in the Kharkiv region to create a buffer zone that would protect Russian border villages from Ukrainian attacks.

Moscow has claimed, as a result of the new assault, to have captured a dozen Ukrainian villages and made its most significant territorial gains in 18 months.