A Ukrainian border town caught in the crosshairs of a Russian offensive earlier this year has been devastated by fighting, aerial video published by the Ukrainian army showed.

Vovchansk in Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region was home to some 17,000 people before Moscow's troops stormed across the border in May, triggering a battle that has lasted for months.

Aerial imagery published by Ukraine's Separate Presidential Brigade on Thursday showed rows of crumbling residential blocks charred by fire and piles of rubble blocking streets.

Some buildings had been flattened, with only their foundations visible.

"The town is almost completely destroyed, with entire streets burning down from artillery and drone strikes," the army unit said in a Facebook post.

"For Ukraine, it is becoming another ghost town that the occupiers have levelled to the ground," it added.

Russian forces captured Vovchansk shortly after they invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but were pushed back across the border during a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive six months later.

In May 2024, Russia launched a new offensive into the town as Moscow sought to create a buffer zone to protect Russians on the other side of the border from Ukrainian shelling.

Thousands of residents quickly fled, leaving just a handful of people behind.

2 killed in Russian air strike on Ukraine's Sumy: local authorities
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Sept 8, 2024 –

A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian border city of Sumy killed two people and wounded several others early Sunday, the region's military administration said.

"As a result of the air strike, two people died, (and) four more people were injured, including two children," military authorities said in a statement.

"Necessary medical assistance is provided to the wounded."

The city's mayor, Oleksiy Drozdenko, said homes and vehicles were also destroyed.

"All services are on site," he said in a Telegram post.

Sumy lies just across the border from Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive on August 6, aimed in part at creating a "buffer zone" inside Russia.

Sunday's strike came just over a week after another fatal attack in the city that killed two people and wounded eight others.

Regional authorities said at the time that people in 183 Sumy settlements near the Russian border were being urged to evacuate, and that tens of thousands of others in the area had already done so.