KYIV, June 24 - At least 17 people were killed in Russian air strikes on southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, damaging schools, hospitals and a passenger train, BBC reported citing Ukrainian officials.

The strikes, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounded more than 100 others, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Three more people, including a toddler, were reported killed in separate strikes on the northeastern city of Sumy.

The rare daytime attack came as Zelenskyy arrived at the NATO summit in the Netherlands for meetings with European leaders.

Zelenskyy is also expected to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit to discuss defence arrangements and further sanctions on Russia.

Writing about the Dnipropetrovsk strikes on social media, Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of a "complete disregard for life".

"This is not a fight where it's hard to choose a side," he wrote. "Standing with Ukraine means defending life. I am grateful to everyone who is helping."

Emergency services in the region published images of rescuers helping civilians covered in blood after the attack.

Although no-one was killed on the train, dramatic footage filmed by a passenger showed her being rocked and bloodied by the moment of impact.

The local military administration said it was damaged by the blast from a ballistic missile that landed nearby.

Dnipropetrovsk has come under threat from Russian battlefield advances in recent weeks, with small units crossing the border into the industrial region and Russia claiming to have gained a foothold there.

Ukrainian military officials say they have been successful in pushing Russian forces back from the border area.

In the Sumy region, the head of the military administration, Oleh Hryhorov, said a five-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble of a destroyed house.

"The strike took the lives of people from different families. They all lived on the same street. They went to sleep in their homes but the Russian drones interrupted their sleep - forever," Hryhorov said.

Two people were also killed in the town of Samar, close to Dnipro, state emergencies service said.

The timing of Tuesday's strikes – as President Zelenskyy arrived in the Hague for the NATO summit – has led to accusations from Kyiv that Russia is deliberately sabotaging peace talks between the two warring countries and seeking to prolong the war.

Last week, on the eve of anticipated talks between Zelenskyy and Trump at the G7 summit in Canada, Russia launched another barrage of strikes which pounded Kyiv for nine hours and killed more than 30 people across the country.

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine held last month in Istanbul produced only an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of the dead, and no further negotiations have been scheduled. (bbc/ez)