'Massive attack': Russia is intensifying its strikes on Ukraine

Russia hammered the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities with missiles and drones early on Thursday, officials said, targeting warehouses, ports, and energy and industrial facilities in an hours-long assault that dragged into the morning.

Commuters in Kyiv streamed to work under the booming sound of air defences firing at jet-powered drones attacking the city in several waves, after an overnight barrage that included an unspecified number of ballistic missiles and 258 drones.

"Overnight, Russia carried out a massive strike against Ukraine, targeting ports, grain storage, energy, industry, and other infrastructure with ballistic and hypersonic missiles and combat drones," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

Russia has stepped up its air war on Ukraine in recent months, pummelling its cities with larger numbers of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones amid a critical shortage of air defences.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week Ukraine had recently received a small batch of the US-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing the fast-moving ballistic missiles, which are notoriously difficult to intercept.

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In a statement on Thursday, Kyiv's air force said Ukrainian forces had downed seven ballistic missiles, one anti-ship cruise missile, and nearly 90 per cent of the drones.

One person was killed and two more injured in a lunchtime attack on a shopping centre in Ukraine's second-biggest city of Kharkiv, said regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.

In Kyiv, debris fell in at least two districts, damaging a school and shattering windows at a healthcare facility, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Two people were injured in a daytime attack, he added.

Two people were wounded outside the capital after strikes damaged warehouses and private homes, the regional governor said. Reuters TV footage showed a big plume of smoke over a warehouse in the region.

In the central Poltava region, air attacks targeted industrial sites and an energy facility, cutting power to seven settlements, its regional governor said.

In Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub, three people were wounded after a missile strike on an industrial facility there, said governor Oleksandr Hanzha.

Three more people were wounded in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia after strikes on an unspecified production facility, according to regional chief Ivan Fedorov.

In an hours-long attack on the southern Odesa region, infrastructure, an educational facility and a multi-storey building were damaged, officials said. Three people were wounded.