Ukrainian strikes on Monday killed six people, including two children, in occupied Ukraine, as well as in the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, local authorities said.

Ukraine regularly targets Russia in retaliation for the daily bombardments it has been subjected to since the start of the large-scale Russian offensive in February 2022.

Four people, among them two children, were killed in the frontline town of Gorlivka in the occupied Donetsk region, said the local Moscow-installed administration.

‘As a result of Ukrainian armed aggression in the Kalininsky district of Gorlovka, four civilians have been killed, including two children born in 2012 and 2013,’ said mayor Ivan Prikhodko, using a Russian spelling for the town.

During the early morning hours, two people died after Ukrainian drones attacked the western Russian border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, said local authorities.

The Monday strikes followed intense Russian bombardments that particularly targeted Kyiv over the weekend, in which Moscow used a nuclear-capable missile, killing four people and wounding more than one hundred, Ukrainian authorities said.

Russia said the raid was in retaliation for a Ukrainian drone attack on educational buildings in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region that left 21 dead and more than 40 injured.

The strikes come as fighting on the front remains effectively deadlocked, as both armies pound each other with swarms of explosive-laden drones.

US-mediated negotiations to end the conflict — the worst in Europe since World War II — have been at a standstill since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Russia said Monday it plans to launch more strikes on Kyiv, including on its ‘decision-making centres’, and repeated a call for foreign citizens and diplomats to leave the city.

Russia had already called on foreign citizens and diplomats to evacuate Kyiv earlier this month, when it threatened massive strikes on central Kyiv if Ukraine disrupted a military parade on Red Square.

Russia launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in February 2022. The conflict has since spiralled into Europe’s deadliest since World War II.