Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of civilians from the southern Kherson region, partly controlled by Russian forces and regularly hit by shelling.
"The Regional Defense Counsel of Kherson decided to compulsorily evacuate families with children from areas subject to constant enemy fire," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
Russian troops control areas in the Kherson region south of the Dniepr river, following their withdrawal last year from the city of Kherson, the regional capital, which they regularly shell.
Ukrainian officials had already recommended in August that civilians leave a dozen areas in the northeast region of Kharkiv in the face of a Russian offensive, but those evacuations were not mandatory.
Prokudin also said that regional authorities were preparing for an "emergency situation" this autumn and winter over electricity provisions.
In the winter of 2022, Russia carried out a campaign of bombing Ukrainian infrastructure, resulting in regular power cuts.
Ukraine earlier said its forces had retaken a village near the war-battered city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, several months into its grinding counteroffensive against entrenched Russian positions.
"We are moving forward in the Bakhmut sector. On the northern flank, the enemy is trying to recapture lost ground. On the southern flank, we are making progress. And we have good news there - Andriivka is ours. We are consolidating our positions," Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar, announced on social media.
A child was killed in the country's south by artillery shelling and that 17 out of 22 Russian drones attacking its territory overnight were downed.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office said a six-year-old boy was killed and four other people, including his 13-year-old brother, were wounded by Russian shelling in the village of Novodmytrivka in the Kherson region.
"Enemy shells hit a private house and its territory," its aid in a statement on Telegram.
Separately, Ukraine's air force said it had shot down drones in several regions in Ukraine's south and north.
"On the night of 14 September 2023, from 9pm to 2.30am, the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with several groups of Shahed-136/131 type (drones) from three directions," it said in a post on Telegram.
Dnipropetrovsk region governor Serhiy Lysak said three drones were over the region, damaging several buildings. Another part of the region was hit overnight by artillery and rockets, he said.
Having initially sought to pummel Ukrainian targets with missiles, Russia has this year increasingly turned to the Shahed, a cheap Iranian kamikaze drone which is more expendable and can confuse air defences with its smaller size and low speed.
Russia claims Ukrainian drones destroyed in Crimea, Black Sea
Russia said it destroyed nearly two dozen Ukrainian drones trying to hit Moscow-annexed Crimea, patrol ships in the Black Sea and border regions.
Crimea has been targeted by Ukraine throughout Russia's offensive but attacks there have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to take the Black Sea peninsula back.
"At about 5am, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergey Kotov in the Black Sea with five unmanned sea boats," Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram.
"While repelling the attack, five unmanned enemy boats were destroyed by fire from the ship's standard weapons."
Moscow previously reported attempted attacks on the Sergey Kotov in July and in August.
At about 5.30am on Thursday, "air defence systems on duty destroyed 11 unmanned aerial vehicles" over the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, the ministry said.
It did not say whether either attack caused any casualties or damage.
Earlier, Russia said that during the night it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones targeting its border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, with no casualties or damage yet reported.
The defence ministry said six drones had been shot down in four separate locations over the Bryansk region, which lies roughly halfway between Kyiv and Moscow.
Another drone was destroyed further south over the Belgorod region yesterday evening.
Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russia has weathered waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in the capital Moscow.
Russian officials have downplayed their significance.
