Russia fired almost 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians were gathered to catch a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

The barrages killed at least five people and knocked out power in most of the southern city of Kherson.

The aerial barrage came a day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea.

Overnight, the Kremlin’s forces launched an artillery and drone bombardment of the Kherson region just as some 140 civilians were waiting for a train at the region’s capital city of the same name, according to Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko.

The shelling killed one policeman and injured two other police officers, as well as two civilians. More than 100 people who were waiting for the train at the time of the attack arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.

The attack on the Kherson region hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid, leaving around 70 per cent of Kherson city without electricity.