Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-occupied part of the southern Kherson region killed nine people on November 3, the Moscow-installed occupation authorities said.
"Nine dead people were pulled out from under the rubble," Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Moscow-occupied Kherson region, told Russian state television.
Konstantin Basyuk, a local Moscow-installed official, put the number of dead at seven but said medics were "fighting for the life" of two others. He accused Kyiv of having "attacked civilian infrastructure" in the area of Chaplynka, including the local pensions office and jobs center.
The town of Chaplynka lies around 100 kilometers southeast of Kherson, the regional capital controlled by Ukrainian forces.
The strikes came as Kyiv pushes a counteroffensive to retake territory from Moscow's forces in the south of the country.
Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesman for Ukraine's ground forces, said there was an increase in activity on the part of Russian forces across the entire front line. Fityo believes this is connected to the approaching elections in Russia.
"They need any victories, however small, minimal, but presented as a victory," Fityo told RFE/RL.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said there were 53 combat clashes at the front during the day in addition to 67 air strikes and 40 attacks from rocket salvo systems on Ukrainian positions and on populated areas.
The General Staff also noted in its evening summary that the Ukrainian military repelled Russian attacks in areas around Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Zaporizhzhya.
"At the same time, the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol direction [and] offensive (assault) actions in the Bakhmut direction, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupying troops [and] exhausting the enemy along the entire front line," it said.
RFE/RL cannot independently confirm battlefield claims in the areas of the heaviest fighting.
Ukrainian officials in the northeastern city of Kharkiv said earlier that nearly a dozen Russian drones had struck civilian targets in or around the city overnight on November 2-3.
The latest wave of Russian aerial attacks on infrastructure in the 21st month of Moscow's unprovoked military invasion came with fears mounting of heightened strikes that could cripple Ukraine's energy grid as temperatures plummet in winter.
The aerial attacks on Kharkiv by "at least 10 Russian drones" shortly after midnight, sparked a major fire but police initially said there was no word on casualties.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said firefighters were battling a blaze but did not elaborate.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Andriy Yermak, said Ukraine's forces had shot down 24 Iranian-designed attack drones and a guided missile overnight.
The Ukrainian General Staff said early on November 3 that "with air support, the enemy continues to try to encircle Avdiyivka, but the Ukrainian soldiers are standing their ground and inflicting major losses on the adversary."
Recent reports have suggested that Moscow's war planners are pouring troops and resources into the Avdiyivka area.
In an interview published this week in The Economist, Ukraine's top commander, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy, likened the current situation in the battle between Ukrainian and invading Russian forces to the kind of "stalemate" that marked fighting in World War I.
He said that "no deep and beautiful breakthrough" was likely under those circumstances.
