BBC News:
kraine’s capital Kyiv has been attacked from the air by Russia for the ninth time this month.
Speaking before the all-clear was given, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a fire in one district had been caused by falling debris.
Blasts were also heard in central Ukraine in the regions of Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky and Zhytomyr.
Kyiv’s military administration said preliminary information indicated all incoming missiles had been destroyed.
Writing on Telegram, Mr Klitschko said the fire had broken out in a garage in the Darnitsya area of Kyiv, but added no one had been injured.
The head of Kyiv’s civilian military administration said a heavy missile attack had been launched from Russian strategic bombers over the Caspian sea.
Serhiy Popko said the attack probably included cruise missiles, adding that Russia had deployed reconnaissance drones over Kyiv after unleashing its wave of air strikes.
On Wednesday, at least eight people were reportedly killed – including a five-year-old boy near Kherson – and 17 injured by shelling in Ukraine, as both sides traded accusations of striking civilian areas.
Western officials say Ukraine’s army is at “an increased state of readiness” ahead of a long-awaited counter- offensive against Russia’s invasion.
The officials said many of Kyiv’s military capabilities were now “coming together” – including its ability to deploy tanks, fighting vehicles and combat engineers, as well as clearing mines, bridging rivers and striking long-range targets.
They said Russian troops were in a parlous state but warned that Moscow’s defensive lines in Ukraine were “potentially formidable” and guarded by “extensive minefields”.
So the officials argued the success of any Ukrainian offensive should be measured not just by territorial gains but also by whether it convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin to rethink his strategy.
The “cognitive effect on the Kremlin”, they claimed, was more important than Ukrainian forces cleaving through Russian lines all the way to the border.
