Aerial strikes on Russian and Ukrainian border cities killed at least a dozen people on Friday, bombardments that came as Kyiv dismissed its air force commander in a major military shake-up.

Russian strikes killed at least four people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, including a 14-year-old girl, officials said yesterday.

Ukraine conducted a drone attack on Russia’s Marinovka military airfield in the southern Russian region of Volgograd, striking a storage site for fuel and glide bombs, a security source in Kyiv said yesterday.

A total of 1,940 attacks on healthcare services in Ukraine have been registered since the start of Russia’s offensive in February 2022, the European branch of the World Health Organization said yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive for more than 11 days.

Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage unit that was armed with weapons from Nato countries in Russia’s western Kursk region, the RIA state-run media agency reported yesterday, citing unidentified security sources.

Ukraine pressed on with a major cross-border incursion into Russia yesterday, also launching a significant air attack on a Russian airfield hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines.

A fire broke out at a Russian military airfield hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border, state media reported early Friday, with authorities ordering evacuations in the area due to a "massive" drone attack

Russian drones attacked the southern Ukrainian port city of Izmail for a second straight night damaging infrastructure, Kyiv said yesterday, claiming several Russian attack drones entered Romanian airspace.

Russia launched an air attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight, setting at least one building ablaze, officials said yesterday.

Russia downed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight in the west of the country and over Crimea, Moscow’s defence ministry said yesterday.

A barrage of Ukrainian drones sparked a blaze overnight at an oil refinery and separately killed one person in southern Russia, officials in Russia and Ukraine said yesterday.

The Kremlin has given  a cautious reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s apparent invitation to a future peace summit, saying that Russia first needs to understand what Kyiv means before attending talks.

Ukrainian aerial and maritime drones struck Russian military targets on the annexed Crimean peninsula, a defence source in Kyiv told AFP Thursday, after Moscow reported an overnight drone assault.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed off on a package of tax rises worth almost $30 billion, tapping workers and companies to contribute funds for his Ukraine offensive.

Nato leaders on Wednesday said China’s deepening ties with Russia are a cause of “deep concern” and accused Beijing of playing a key role in helping Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden pledged to forcefully defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion at the Nato summit in Washington on Tuesday evening, using the global stage to try to show allies at home and abroad that he can still lead.

Russia blasted the main children's hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months

Russia struck cities across Ukraine yesterday with a missile barrage that killed 36 people and heavily damaged a Kyiv children’s hospital in an assault condemned as a ruthless attack on civilians.

Russia rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine in broad daylight on Monday morning, killing at least 36 civilians and badly damaging Kyiv's main children's hospital in the deadliest air strike in months, officials said