A Russian strike on Tuesday killed 24 people waiting for pension payments in a front-line town of eastern Ukraine where Russian forces are massing forces for a large-scale offensive, officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted video showing several corpses strewn on the ground by a burned-out minivan and playground -- images AFP could not independently verify.

"A brutally savage Russian airstrike with an aerial bomb on the rural settlement of Yarova in the Donetsk region. Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed," Zelensky wrote online.

Moscow has claimed the industrial region as part of Russia despite not having full control over it.

Kyiv says the Kremlin has massed 100,000 troops at a key part of the front line for a fresh

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