Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near Novofedorivka, Crimea, on Tuesday. Reuters

Russian shelling has killed 21 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on Wednesday.

Eleven people were killed in the district of Nikopol and 10 in the town of Marganets, he said on the Telegram messaging app.

Earlier, the Russians fired over 120 rockets at the town of Nikopol, across the Dnieper River from the plant, Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. Several apartment buildings and industrial sites were damaged, he said.

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UN chief demands international access to Ukraine nuclear plant after new attack

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the power station, Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, stoking international fears of a catastrophe.

The governor of the region where the plant is situated, Oleksandr Starukh, said Tuesday that radiation levels were normal. But he warned that an accident could spread radiation whichever way the wind blows, carrying it to Moscow and other Russian cities.

Volunteers of the Ukrainian Red Cross emergency transport a wounded man in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. AP

A Russian-installed official in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region said an air defense system at the plant would be reinforced in the aftermath of last week’s shelling. Evgeny Balitsky, head of the Kremlin-backed administration, told Russian state TV that power lines and other damaged portions of the plant were restored.

The Ukrainians in recent weeks have been mounting counterattacks in Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine while trying to hold off the Kremlin’s forces in the industrial Donbas region in the east.

Also Tuesday, a US official said Iran has agreed to supply Russia with drones for use in the war in Ukraine. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said "during the last several weeks, Russian officials conducted training in Iran as part of the agreement for UAV transfers from Iran to Russia.”

The White House released satellite images in mid-July indicating that Russians had visited an Iranian airbase to see weapons-capable drones. But U.S. officials said later that month that they had seen no evidence yet of Iran supplying Russia with the drones.

Ukrainian officials this month said Iran has transferred drones to Russia and some have been used in combat.