A Russian missile attack killed at least 16 residents and damaged hospital and municipal infrastructure in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv yesterday, local officials said.

A lack of air defence missiles prevented Ukraine from thwarting a Russian missile attack last week that destroyed the biggest power plant in the region around the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Russia launched more than two dozen attack drones on Ukraine, hitting critical infrastructure in the central Zhytomyr region and damaging logistics facilities in the south, officials said yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the US Congress does not approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion.

Ukraine said yesterday it had destroyed at least six Russian military planes at an airbase in the southern Rostov region in a barrage of overnight drone attacks.

France's defence minister said Paris would deliver "hundreds" of armoured personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles as part a new aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders

Ukraine yesterday said that Russian shelling overnight and in the morning killed two elderly people in the eastern town of Krasnogorivka, and urged civilians still living there to evacuate.

Ukraine warned yesterday that Russian air attacks were putting its electricity supply under “increasing threat”, hours after strikes damaged power stations and killed at least one person. Moscow has stepped up aerial bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks,

Russia yesterday sought to shift blame for the Moscow concert hall attack onto Ukraine and its Western backers, despite the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the massacre of at least 139 people.

Russia yesterday admitted two years into its invasion of Ukraine that it was “in a state of war,” as it launched a massive wave of missile and drone attacks on its neighbour’s territory.

Russia said yesterday that its troops had made gains in eastern Ukraine, building on recent advances against Ukrainian forces in critical need of Western aid.

Ukrainian bombardments killed two people and set an oil facility ablaze in Russia yesterday, the second day of showpiece elections guaranteed to cement President Vladimir Putin’s hardline rule.

Ukraine yesterday slammed Pope Francis’s call to negotiate with Russia two years into its invasion, vowing “never” to surrender after the pontiff said Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag”.

Russian shelling and strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson region killed one person and wounded several, with at least two civilians also killed in attacks on the centre and east of the country, Kyiv said yesterday.

A late-night Russian strike on the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv killed two people, the region’s governor said yesterday, as both Moscow and Kyiv reported a wave of overnight aerial attacks.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, described Ukraine yesterday as part of Russia and said what he called historical parts of Russia needed to “come home.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday urged the West to deliver more air defence systems as a wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least eight people.

President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday of a “real” risk of nuclear war if the West escalates the conflict in Ukraine, offering a defiant and emboldened stance in his annual speech to Russians.

Sri Lanka has decided to stop issuing free long-term visas to Russian and Ukrainian nationals who have lived in the Indian Ocean island nation for the past two years, a government official said yesterday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed that Europe would back Ukraine until it was “finally free” as she and three other Western leaders arrived in Kyiv to show solidarity on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.