A missile targeted Kyiv yesterday, ending nearly two months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital, while frontline regions fended off waves of drone attacks overnight.

Russian forces are fighting to surround the war-battered frontline town of Avdiivka and capture a strategically-located factory nearby, a Ukrainian military spokesman said yesterday.

Russia launched a massive drone attack early yesterday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, officials said.

Russia has shelled more than 100 settlements over the last 24 hours -- more than in any single day so far this year, Ukraine said yesterday.

Russian forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula overnight, Moscow’s Defence Ministry said yesterday.

Russian forces heavily shelled the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson yesterday, injuring eight people and destroying or damaging at least 15 buildings, a senior city official said.

A Russian drone attack damaged buildings near the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in the early hours of yesterday and 20 people were wounded, officials said.

Russian missile strikes killed at least six postal workers and wounded 17 others Saturday when they hit a mail depot in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said.

Russian forces have made gains in their Ukraine offensive, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday, referring to several areas, including  Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub where fighting has been fierce.

Kyiv reported “heated” fighting around its eastern city of Avdiivka yesterday, saying Russian forces had “not stopped assaulting” the symbolic industrial hub for days in their attempt to surround it.

At least two people were killed and 15 wounded in Russian air strikes in southern and eastern Ukraine yesterday, Kyiv said, as Russian and Ukrainian forces fought fierce battles around the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.

Russia pounded port and grain facilities in southern Ukraine yesterday and launched new attacks on the eastern town of Avdiivka in one of its biggest offensive operations in months.

Russia yesterday said its forces had strengthened their position on the frontline near Avdiivka, a day after Ukraine warned Moscow was stepping up strikes to encircle the eastern town.

Russia unleashed new air strikes on Ukraine early yesterday, killing a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother in the city of Kharkiv and damaging grain and port infrastructure in the Odesa region in the south, Ukrainian officials said.

A Russian missile slammed into a cafe and grocery store in a village in northeastern Ukraine yesterday, killing at least 51 people as they held a memorial service, Ukrainian officials said.

A Russian attack killed at least 49 people, including a six-year-old boy, in a village in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said

A huge fire has erupted at an oil pipeline in the western Ukrainian region of Ivano-Frankivsk, injuring three people, emergency services said yesterday.

Ukrainian officials said yesterday said they had evacuated all children from several towns and villages near the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a focal point of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet and one of Russia's most senior navy officers, was shown today attending a video conference, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him

Western powers through their support for Ukraine are “de facto” fighting against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, as Kyiv claimed fresh advances on the ground.