Drone footage shows Ukrainian village battered to ruins

Bombed out buildings
Buildings in the Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne, in Donetsk region, are damaged beyond repair. -AP

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne - a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine - has been battered by fighting, drone footage shows.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv's depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.

Ukraine's military has acknowledged the Russians have gained a "foothold" in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3000 before the war, but says that fighting continues.

The seemingly empty Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne had a population of about 3000 before the war. (AP PHOTO)

Residents have scrambled to flee the village, among them a 98-year-old woman who walked almost 10km alone during the week, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane, until she reached Ukrainian front lines.

Not a single person is seen in the footage, and no building in Ocheretyne appears to have been left untouched by the fighting.

Most houses, apartment blocks and other buildings look damaged beyond repair, and many houses have been pummelled into piles of wood and bricks.

A factory on the outskirts has also been badly damaged.

The footage also shows smoke billowing from several houses and fires burning in at least two buildings.

Elsewhere, Russia has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in an attempt to batter the region's energy infrastructure and terrorise its 1.3 million residents.

Four people were wounded and a two-storey civilian building was damaged and set ablaze overnight after Russian forces struck Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, with exploding drones, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Saturday.

Ukraine's military acknowledges Russia has a "foothold" in Ocheretyne, but says fighting continues. (AP PHOTO)

The four, including a 13-year-old, were hurt by falling debris, he said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine's military said Russia launched a total of 13 Shahed drones at the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of eastern Ukraine overnight, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.

Syniehubov said Russia also bombed Kharkiv on Friday, damaging residential buildings and sparking a fire.

An 82-year-old woman died and two men were wounded.

Russia's Defence Ministry claimed early on Saturday that its forces overnight shot down four US-provided long-range ATACMS missiles over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The ministry did not provide further details.

Ukraine has recently begun using the missiles, provided secretly by the US, to hit Russian-held areas including a military airfield in Crimea and in another area east of the occupied city of Berdyansk, US officials say.

Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine almost double the striking distance - up to 300km - it had with the mid-range version of the weapons it received from the US in October.