Deadly air strike hits Ukraine frontline city as it readies for street battle

Ashes littered a square in the war-ravaged east Ukrainian city of Lysychansk Friday as smoke rose from a cultural centre following a Russian air strike that killed four people sheltering there.

The embattled city is preparing for a possible street battle, with Russian troops fighting Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Severodonetsk, just across the river.

The bombing on Thursday sparked a fire that raged through the blue and white-painted Stalin-era Diamant Palace of Culture overnight and was still burning on Friday.  

The building contained a library and post office as well as a stage for arts events. After the war began, it became used a bomb shelter by locals and a makeshift refuge for those who lost their homes.

A mother and daughter were killed, as well as a young man and a bedridden woman who had moved there to shelter from her home in Severodonetsk, locals standing around said.

Police said that around 10 were injured, some seriously injured after being trapped by debris, while there were around 10 others inside the building, while locals suggested the figure was higher. 

Police said those seriously hurt were taken to hospital in the nearby city of Bakhmut -- since Lysychansk's hospital has no electricity.

"Locals say the military sometimes used to come here," said a bearded police special forces officer with the nickname Jaconda, who was helping evacuate local residents.