Russian air attacks target Kyiv, ports, industrial sites

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said that Russia could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British missiles.

Maria Zakharova called on Britain to back off what she called London's hostile stance on Ukraine, which she said risked taking the conflict to an entirely new level.

She had told the same Moscow news briefing earlier that Britain and France were "playing with fire" by supplying sensitive missile technology to Ukraine.

Britain announced on Monday that it would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start its own production of Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, capable of carrying out strikes deep within Russia.

France has already given its assent to license the technology for the European missile.

The Kremlin also said today that Russia would go to court to try to stop any new and "illegal" European Union plan to use its frozen sovereign assets to aid Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a report in the Financial Times which said that some EU states, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, were urging Brussels to revive efforts to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine

Russia launched missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, with the capital Kyiv and other cities coming under a massive attack, Ukrainian authorities have said.

Ukraine's air force said the barrage included two Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles, 258 drones, and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles.

The air force said that nearly 90% of the drones were downed, as well as one Oniks and seven ballistic missiles.

Russia has escalated its air strikes on Ukraine in recent months, with Kyiv short of US-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing ballistic missiles.

"This week, our European allies made important decisions to strengthen Ukrainian air defense," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, calling for additional support packages.

"Everything that strengthens the protection of our skies effectively saves the lives of Ukrainians every day," Mr Zelensky said.

He said this week Ukraine has recently received a small batch of the interceptors.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the massive strike targeted ports, grain storage, energy, industry, and other infrastructure.

In Kyiv, debris fell in two districts, damaging a school and shattering windows in a healthcare facility in one of them, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

In the surrounding region, two people were injured as Russian missile and drone attacks caused a fire in warehouse premises and damaged other warehouses, as well as private houses, the regional governor said.

Five drones crossed into the air space of neighbouring Moldova amid the attack on Ukraine, Moldova's authorities said.

Russia's defence ministry said Moscow hit facilities of Ukraine's military-industrial complex, metallurgical and oil-refining industries, logistics centres and infrastructure facilities at the ports in Odesa region intended to support the Ukrainian armed forces.

The attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa lasted almost all night and morning, a local official said, adding that infrastructure, an educational facility and a multi-storey building were damaged. Three people were injured in the city, the official said.

In the central Poltava region, industrial businesses and an energy facility came under attack, cutting power to seven settlements, the regional governor said.

In Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in central Ukraine and Zelenskiy's hometown, three people were injured as two missiles hit an industrial facility. Three more people were wounded in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said.

Russia's army chief Valery Gerasimov has visited Moscow's troops on the Ukraine front, the defence ministry said today, vowing to seize more east Ukrainian towns and villages.

The visit comes as Moscow's offensive crosses the four-and-a-half-year mark and as the war between the neighbours intensifies this summer, with US-brokered peace talks frozen.

In a video released by the ministry, Mr Gerasimov said Russian forces were advancing on the east Ukrainian town of Sloviansk and praised their "successes".

"The offensive is proceeding at an unabated pace on all fronts," he said. "There are four kilometres left to the eastern suburbs of Sloviansk." AFP could not independently verify the claim.

Russia has not eased its maximalist demand that Ukraine cede the rest of the east, with the Kremlin tasking troops with taking control of the whole of the Donetsk region.

Sloviansk and nearby Kramatorsk are the last major hubs under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region, part of the so-called fortress belt - a chain of heavily fortified defence lines built by Kyiv since 2014.

Sloviansk has been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance since 2014, when it was held for around three months by pro-Russian separatist forces before Kyiv retook it.

Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Andriy Biletskyi and Denys Prokopenko - widely seen as among the country's best commanders - to lead the region's defence.