Russia hammered Ukrainian ports, industrial sites and retailers' distribution facilities with missiles and drones in an hours-long attack on Kyiv and other cities that was partly repelled, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
Commuters went to work in the capital to the boom of air defences firing at waves of drones after an overnight barrage that Ukraine's military said 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.
The Ukrainian military said it had shot down seven ballistic missiles, an improved strike rate after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week that Kyiv had received a small batch of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors.
The weapons are capable of downing fast-moving ballistic missiles, which are difficult to intercept, but their short supply has left Ukraine increasingly vulnerable to Russia's mounting air war.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, also said it had come under fire overnight, with a drone attack temporarily closing a logistics complex run by online retailer Ozon in the city of Ufa, the company said.
Ukraine has targeted several Ozon facilities since Saturday in a campaign against e-commerce giants including online retailer Wildberries, which it says are part of infrastructure underpinning Russia's war effort.
Ukraine won further pledges of support from allies including Britain, which has said it will allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start its own production of Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
Moscow warned on Thursday that it could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine "in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons."
UKRAINIAN LOGISTICS HIT
Air-raid sirens in Kyiv wailed into the afternoon as attack drones streaked across multiple neighbourhoods, with debris wounding four people.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and two were injured in a lunchtime attack on a shopping centre, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The strikes also targeted a Kyiv-area distribution centre for major Ukrainian retailer COMFY and destroyed another distribution centre for a leading toy company, their chief executives said separately on social media.
Leading chocolate firm Roshen, founded by former President Petro Poroshenko, also said one of its warehouses outside Kyiv was destroyed.
Russian strikes also hit industrial sites, energy facilities and other infrastructure in the central Poltava and southern Odesa regions, as well as the southeastern city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said.
The attacks delayed trains across several regions, leaving passengers stranded for long periods.
Russia's defence ministry said Moscow had struck steelworks in Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, an oil refinery in the Poltava region, logistics centres around Kyiv and three ports in the Odesa region.
Six Russian drones also crossed into the airspace of neighbouring Moldova, local authorities said, prompting President Maia Sandu to "strongly condemn this intimidation". One of them was found on Moldovan territory.
(Reuters)