Air raid sirens have sounded across Ukraine after Russia launched a fresh wave of missile and drone strikes on cities around the country.
Explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, where the city’s mayor said five people had been injured by falling debris from downed drones.
Blasts also hit Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa and Mykolaiv, officials said.
It marks the fourth attack in eight days on Kyiv, and comes just 24 hours before Russia celebrates Victory Day.
The annual holiday commemorates Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two, a conflict the Kremlin has baselessly tried to draw parallels to since launching its invasion of Ukraine last year.
After a lull in Russian attacks on civilian targets in recent months, which saw Kyiv go days without an attack, Moscow has intensified its air raids over the past week ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region.
The Ukrainian military said Monday morning’s raids – which lasted more than four hours and were launched shortly after midnight – saw 16 missiles fired at targets across the country.
It said that 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos were also fired at cities and military positions. Officials added that some 35 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones had been destroyed. The BBC has not been able to verify these numbers.
In Kyiv, emergency services responded after drone wreckage fell on a runway at Zhuliany international airport – one of the city’s two commercial airports – Kyiv’s military administration said.
And civilians were injured after drone debris hit a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, the administration added.
Elsewhere, in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, a warehouse was set ablaze in the strikes.
In images posted to social media by Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, flames could be seen engulfing the building, which he identified as a food warehouse. (BBC)
