Ukraine was targeted in another Russian missile barrage on Thursday morning, just a day after France promised fresh military support. An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched over 120 missiles.
Several regions of Ukraine, including its capital faced a massive Russian missile attack on Thursday morning, the latest in a series targeting national infrastructure.
Air raid sirens rang out across the country. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia launched over 120 missiles.
Russia is aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse,” he said.
“We’re waiting for further proposals from 'peacekeepers' about ‘peaceful settlement,’ ‘security guarantees for RF’ and undesirability of provocations,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter, a sarcastic reference to statements from some in the West who urged Ukraine to seek a political settlement of the conflict.
In Kyiv, air defence systems were activated to fend off the ongoing missile attack, according to the regional administration. Sounds of explosions were heard in the city. Officials say 40% of Kyiv's population is now without electricity.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned Thursday that there could be power outages in the capital, asking people to stockpile water and to charge their electronic devices.
As the latest wave of Russian strikes began, authorities in the Dnipro, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih regions said they switched off electricity to minimise the damage to critical infrastructure facilities if they were hit.
Kharkiv's mayor Ihor Terekhov said numerous explosions took place in Ukraine's second-largest city. Explosions were also heard in the city of Lviv near the border with Poland, according to Terekhov's counterpart, Andriy Sadovyi.
Ukrainian authorities in several regions said some incoming Russian missiles were intercepted.
The governor of southern Ukraine's Mykolaiv province, Vitaliy Kim, said five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea. The Ukrainian military’s command in the North said two were downed over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia in the country’s northeast.
Fragments from downed Russian missiles damaged two private buildings in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the city administration said. An industrial facility and a playground in neighbourhoods located across the Dnieper River were also damaged. No casualties were immediately reported.
Watch the video in the player above.