Russian missiles kill seven including children and wound 36 as they slam into southern Ukraine town

A spate of Russian missile strikes have killed seven people,including two children,and wounded another 36 after they slammed into a town in southern Ukraine as the conflict continues to intensify.

Tyrant Putin's forces fired a number of missiles at the town of Vilniansk,outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia,on Saturday with officials in Ukraine releasing photos of bodies stretched out under picnic blankets in a park in the city.

Other grim images showed deep craters in the blackened earth next to the charred remains of a building.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his appeal to allies,urging them to provide his battered country with more long-range weapons and enhanced air defences to stop what he claimed were daily attacks. 

Vilniansk lies less than 20 miles from the local capital and north of the front lines with Russian forces continuing to occupy part of the province.

A car is pictured completely gutted after rockets were fired onto the city of Vilniansk this weekend 

Russia's ministry of defence said air defence forces shot down 33 Ukrainian drones over the country's western Bryansk,Smolensk,Lipetsk and Tula regions.

A fresh attack on Kharkiv killed at least one person and injured 10,according to local officials. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was attacked by a guided bomb and around half of Kharkiv was without electricity because of the strike.

Earlier, Russian strikes had hit a house and a children's educational facility in Kharkiv,killing one person and injuring 10 including two teenagers,regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.