Russia has launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine, with at least three people dead after residential and industrial buildings were hit, Ukrainian authorities said.
Two people were killed after a Russian missile hit critical infrastructure in the western Ukraine region of Khmelnytskyi, regional officials said.
At least six blasts have been reported there but officials gave no immediate details of damage.
Meanwhile a 62-year-old was killed outside the south central city of Kryvyi Rih where governor Serhiy Lysak said a shopping centre and more than two dozen private buildings were damaged in strikes.
“The mad enemy once again struck civilians,” Mr Lysak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Directed missiles at people.”
Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, reported that 15,000 residents were without power and that local trams and trolleybuses were not running.
“The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities,” Mr Vilkul said.
Volunteers talk next to an apartment building damaged in the strikes on Zaporizhzhia
Mr Vilkul said full information about the extent of potential damages would be disclosed after the Russian attack was over.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for more than three hours from around 6am local time (4am UK time) with Ukraine’s Air Force saying the country was under threat from several waves of cruise missiles.
The latest strikes come as a cold snap sweeps across Ukraine.
The targets of the Russian attack and the full scale of the strikes has not been immediately clear.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow.
People take shelter inside a metro station in Kyiv during an air raid alert today
Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia city council, said on Telegram that a missile attack on the city resulted in injuries, but he did not provide further details.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, an industrial site and educational facility were damaged after at least four missile strikes, governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
At least one