According to the regional governor, five young people were among the dead.
Another 11 people were killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, officials said.
Among those killed and eight wounded in the attack on the Pokrovsk district were five young people, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed to have effectively targeted the Saki army airbase in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
“Saki Airfield! All targets were hit!” Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. He also posted a photograph that gave the impression of showing the airfield, although it was not easy to identify the image.
Russian officials have commented on the alleged attack, but the Russian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that it had managed to shoot down four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula overnight.
Later on Saturday, the ministry reported that its air defense forces had shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.
Traffic was temporarily suspended for the third day in a row on a bridge linking the peninsula, which Moscow illegally seized in 2014, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. This stretch was a source link for Russia’s war effort.
In Russia, local officials in Belgorod (40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border) said an “aerial target” was shot down as it approached the city.
The Dec. 30 Ukrainian strikes in Belgorod killed 25 people, officials said, and rocket and drone attacks continued that week.
As Russians prepared to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, Christmas Eve masses in Belgorod were canceled due to the “operational situation,” Mayor Valentin Demidov said.