WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US official on Friday (July 15) dismissed Russia's claim that it targeted a meeting of the Ukrainian air force in Vinnytsia in an attack that Kyiv says killed 23 people including children.

"I have no indication that there was a military target anywhere near that," the senior defence official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"That looked like an apartment building," said the official, who also confirmed that Russia launched the missile strike on Thursday from a submarine.

Including the Vinnytsia attack, the official estimated that 100 to 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in Russian strikes in the past one to two weeks, citing public reporting.

Vinnytsia is a central Ukrainian city hundreds of kilometres from the front lines that had mostly enjoyed calm since Russia invaded on Feb 24.

Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that it was targeting "a meeting of the command of the Ukrainian Air Force with representatives of foreign arms suppliers."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned late on Thursday that the death toll was likely to rise and said, "No other state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia."