Russia Ukraine war latest news today: Five killed in Vladimir Putin’s overnight missile strikes

At least two people were killed after loud explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital and adjoining cities in the early hours today, officials said. Russian forces rained missiles on Kyiv, and other areas from central Ukraine to southern Mykolaiv.

“A young woman and a three-year-old child have been killed,” Borys Filatov, mayor of the central city of Dnipro, said on Telegram.

Air raid sirens were activated around 5am as explosions were reported across the country.

Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine and in Mykolaiv in the south and another online source reported an explosion in the Kyiv region.

The mass missile attack on Ukraine comes after several weeks and ahead of Kyiv’s planned counteroffensive.

An apartment building in the central town of Uman was also seen on fire.

At least five have been injured in the attack, regional governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.

Ukrainian air defence has downed 21 missiles over Ukraine, out of which 11 were shot down over Kyiv.

The Kyiv Military Administration said 11 Russian cruise missiles and two drones were downed by air defence over the capital in a morning update.

Russian forces launched a mass attack against Ukraine at 4am using strategic Tu-95 aircraft, Ukraine’s air force said.

Anti-aircraft missile units of the Ukrainian Air Force together with the air defence destroyed 21 of the 23 X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has said they shot down 21 out of 23 missiles fired by Russia in an overnight attack.

“Last night, the terrorist state attacked Ukraine with missiles launched from the strategic bombers Tu-95. Ukrainian air defenders shot down 21 of 23 missiles and 2 drones. At least five civilians were killed,” the ministry said in its latest update.

The barrage of missile attack in Ukrainian cities has led to five deaths, officials said.

While two were killed in Dnipro, another three were killed in the central town of Uman and another eight were injured after a missile pierced an apartment building, said Ihor Taburets, head of the military administration in the area.

The mass-missile attack comes 51 days after Russian forces fired most weapons, including drones on Ukraine in early March.

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of using the “Kalibrs” missile on civilian areas in Ukraine.

“The rockets damaged dozens of ordinary houses and two educational institutions. ‘Kalibrs’ against a school and a college, against residential buildings,” he said in his nightly address.

He said Russia fired another rocket in the evening at Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region. “A school, hospital and residential buildings were damaged. Unfortunately, there are people injured,” he said.

“In Mykolaiv, the debris has been cleared from the site of a rocket attack that took place last night. More than 20 people were wounded, one person was killed…,” he said.

Hours later, Russia released another missile barrage across Ukraine, raining ammunition on several regions.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group head said he had been joking when he offered to suspend artillery fire on Ukrainian forces in besieged Bakhmut.

“A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message:

He later added: “Guys, this is military humour. Humour, and nothing more … it was a joke.”

At least 4,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Bakhmut, according to estimates from Kyiv, and thousands more soldiers from both sides.

Alastair Jamieson reports:

An apartment building has been found ablaze early today in the central Ukrainian town of Uman. Police in the region said emergency services were operating.

The pictures, posted on various news and other websites, showed flames shooting out from a heavily damaged building in the town. Parts of the building had collapsed.

Zoya Vovk, a police spokesman in the surrounding region, said emergency teams were operating.

No immediate casualties have been reported so far.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan held talks by telephone yesterday, their offices said, before the two countries marked the inauguration of Turkey’s first nuclear power reactor.

The Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey’s southern Mersin province has been built by Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom.

Mr Erdogan thanked Mr Putin during their call for his help on the power plant, the Turkish leader’s office said. They also discussed the Black Sea grain initiative and the situation in Ukraine, it said.

Mr Putin said they agreed to deepen economic, trade and agricultural cooperation.

Both presidents took part virtually in a ceremony marking the loading of nuclear fuel into the first power unit at Akkuyu.

The $20 billion, 4,800 megawatt (MW) project to build four reactors in the Mediterranean town of Akkuyu will allow Turkey to join the small club of nations with civil nuclear energy.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group head said he had been joking when he offered to suspend artillery fire on Ukrainian forces in besieged Bakhmut.

“A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message:

He later added: “Guys, this is military humour. Humour, and nothing more … it was a joke.”

At least 4,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Bakhmut, according to estimates from Kyiv, and thousands more soldiers from both sides.

Alastair Jamieson reports: