A Russian missile hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, killing at least seven people and wounding 22, local authorities have said.
Eighteen of the wounded were pulled from the rubble by rescue workers on Tuesday, who continue to work at the scene, the emergencies service said in an online post.
Footage from the state rescue service showed a gaping hole in the side of the building, with firefighters extinguishing a fire as the wounded were put on stretchers.
There was a blood patch visible in the debris, and shattered glass and upturned furniture strewn on the floor in the offices inside the building.
"They destroyed half of the building, got into my office," regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Russian forces have attacked Ukraine's southern ports including Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Mariupol as they try to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea and establish a land corridor from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized in 2014.
Mr Kim said there was an upside to the strike — and suggested Russia had given up trying to take over the city.
Russia has frequently denied targeting civilians and did not comment on the strike on Mykolaiv.
Describing the strike, Natalia Novikova, 57, an employee in the department of health in the local administration, said it was "so noisy, people were very afraid".
"People all ran into the hallway and some are still sitting there because they're still scared. After that the [air-raid] sirens went off," she told Reuters.
Peace talks result in 'significant' progress
Within hours of that strike Russia said it will drastically cut military activity around the cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, after talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Istanbul.
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said it was hoped the reduction would help progress the negotiations.
"In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing [an] agreement, a decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions," he told reporters.
However Moscow's lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, said Russia's promise to scale down military operations in those areas does not represent a ceasefire.
"This is not a ceasefire but this is our aspiration, gradually to reach a de-escalation of the conflict at least on these fronts," Mr Medinsky said in an interview with the TASS news agency.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Turkey on Tuesday for the first face-to-face talks in nearly three weeks, with Ukraine seeking a ceasefire without compromising on territory or sovereignty as its forces have pushed Russians back from Kyiv.
The talks marked the most significant progress in discussions to date, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said after the negotiations concluded.
Mr Cavusoglu said Turkey welcomed the two countries reaching compromise and a common understanding on certain issues and said the war must end as soon as possible.
He also said that "more difficult issues" were expected to be discussed between Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers at a later date, adding that the leaders of the two countries would meet subsequently.
Ukraine proposed adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees at the latest round of talks with Russia, meaning it would not join military alliances or host military bases, Ukrainian negotiators said.
The proposals would also include a 15-year consultation period on the status of annexed Crimea and could come into force only in the event of a complete ceasefire, the negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.
The proposals are the most detailed and concrete that Ukraine has aired publicly.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the talks would not continue on Wednesday.
ABC/wires
