A Russian air strike on a pension distribution centre in a village in eastern Ukraine has killed 24 civilians, according to officials.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace in the three-and-a-half-year-old war have largely stalled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a guided bomb struck the village of Yarova, about 24km from the city of Sloviansk, a Ukrainian stronghold, and several kilometres behind the front line.

"Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed," he wrote on X.

The president posted video footage showing bodies strewn across the ground and debris.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 24 people were killed and another 18

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