KYIV: Russian strikes killed at least four people in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky was in New York to plead Ukraine’s case at the United Nations.

For months, Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in intensifying long-range strikes targeting a growing number of civilian sites, including factories, warehouses and energy and port infrastructure, as well as ships in the Black Sea.

“The Russian attack carried out last night against the city left four dead,” Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on social media.

The victims were found under the rubble. Search and rescue operations were under way.

Earlier, Ganzha said four districts in the city were targeted by “missiles, drones and artillery”. Shelling hit warehouses and a business, which was severely damaged, he added.

Industrial sites were also targeted in Kryvyi Rig -- Zelensky’s home city -- and Pavlograd, both of which are in the region, according to the official.

In the southern region of Mykolaiv, a Russian long-range drone killed a three-year-old child, the local authorities said. Four other people were wounded in a neighbouring locality, one of them seriously.

Zelensky is expected to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“There are concrete security proposals and de-escalation measures that could bring the end of the war closer. We are working to strengthen air defence and ensure sufficient financing for Ukraine,” he wrote on X.

Washington has restarted its diplomatic mediation efforts aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.