INTERNATIONAL: Russian rocket hit a primary school in the center of Kharkiv in the early morning hours of Monday (June 27), causing no casualties, while Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk two Russian missiles slammed into a crowded shopping center, killing at least ten people and wounding 40, senior Ukrainian officials said.

"The school has been badly damaged," Olena Fomichova, the school's director said after inspecting the damage. "We will do our best to enable our children to come back to school, be it online or off-line but we will make sure they do not lose out, she said."

Russian forces renewed shelling of Kharkiv and surrounding countryside in what Kyiv says is a bid to force Ukraine to pull resources from the main battlefield in Donbas to protect civilians from attack.

The strikes that began on Tuesday (June 21) were the worst for weeks in an area where normal life had been returning since Ukraine pushed Moscow's forces back in May.

 Kharkiv suffered heavy bombardment from the very start of the Russian invasion on February 24, which left much of the country's city of 1.5 million a wasteland of ruined buildings and debris.

Russian shelling of the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine killed five people and wounded 22 on Monday (June 27), including five children, the regional governor said.

Trails of blood and bodies were seen on the grounds of a residential area in a central Kharkiv district after a Russian artillery strike.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies targeting civilians.

Residents and family members of some of the wounded described explosions that rocked the buildings.

A 12 year old boy, Gleb Bondarenko, was wounded in various parts of his body and was treated by emergency services that arrived at the scene following the attack.

Evgeni Vasilenko, press spokesman for Kharkiv emergency services, said Russian bombs hit a children's playground and buildings in a residential area of Novyie Budynki district. He said Smerch, a 300 mm multiple launch system was used by the Russian to fire the artillery.

Remains of a 220mm Uragan rocket were seen in a different district of central Kharkiv.

Emergency crews in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk were working on Monday (June 27) to contain the fire after a shopping center was hit by what Ukrainian officials say was a Russian missile strike.

Firefighters and rescue workers were clearing rubble and putting out what remained of the flames which had engulfed the crowded shopping mall.

At least 10 people were killed after two Russian missiles hit the mall, regional governor Dmytro Lunin said.

Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region, told reporters that 40 others had been wounded.

^{PHOTO: AFTERMATH OF SHELLING OF KHARKIV / VICTIMS INCLUDING CHILDREN / RELATIVES OF VICTIMS SPEAKING/ EMERGENCY SERVICES AT THE SCENE, EVACUATING BODIES, TREATING WOUNDED}