Deaths reported following Russian shelling of frontline villages in Ukraine

Police officers help an elderly woman during an evacuation in the Donetsk region (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Russian shelling of frontline villages in eastern Ukraine has killed four people while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian attack ripped through a nine-storey residential building, leaving one dead, officials said.

The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 600-mile front line.