Russia has launched a massive missile attack across Ukraine – striking targets in the capital Kyiv, the second biggest city of Kharkiv and the Black Sea port of Odesa – leading to five people being killed.

The northern city of Chernihiv and the western Lviv region, as well as the cities of Dnipro, Lutsk and Rivne, also came under fire, and Ukrainian media reported explosions in the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.

The Russian attack – targeting the country’s energy infrastructure but also hitting residential areas – was the first of its kind on such a scale for three weeks, and has caused blackouts in Ukraine.

Ukraine war – latest: Russia launches massive missile attack

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were reported in the city’s Holosiivskyi district and emergency services were heading there.

“Objects of critical infrastructure is again in the crosshairs of the occupants,” said Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov in a Telegram post after 15 missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city and the outlying northeastern region, hitting residential buildings.

The city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, reported “problems with electricity” in some parts of the city.

Energy facilities and residential buildings were also hit in the southern Odesa region, according to its governor Maksym Marchenko.

“The second wave is expected right now, so I ask the residents of the region to stay in shelters!” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Preventive emergency power cuts were applied in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Odesa regions, supplier DTEK said.

Ukrainian Railways also reported power outages in areas.

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The missile offensive came as Ukrainian forces fought off fierce assaults by Russian soldiers on the eastern mining town of Bakhmut.

“The enemy continued its attacks and has shown no sign of a let-up in storming the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Facebook.

“Our defenders repelled attacks on Bakhmut and on surrounding communities.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address late on Wednesday that the battle for Bakhmut and the surrounding Donbas region is “our first priority”.

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Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claimed control of the eastern part of Bakhmut.

“Everything east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of Wagner,” the group’s leader and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin wrote on Telegram.

Control of Bakhmut would give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities it has long coveted in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

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