Ukrainian officials said that Russia bombed today, Thursday, a large missile factory and gas production facilities, in new missile strikes on the country's important infrastructure, while the Kremlin accused Kyiv of changing its positions on holding peace talks between the two countries, saying that it does not envisage entering into public negotiations with it.

Explosions were heard in several parts of the country, including the southern port of Odessa, the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro, and civilians were urged to take cover as air raid warnings were issued.

There was no immediate news of any deaths in the new wave of air strikes.

Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said the targets included the massive Bevdenmash missile factory in Dnipro.

"Missiles are now flying over Kyiv. They are bombing our gas production (facilities), now they are bombing our companies in Dnipro and Pivdenmash," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted him as saying at the conference.

It was not immediately clear which gas production facilities Shmihal was referring to.

The Kyiv regional administration said that the air defenses shot down two "Shahid" (Iranian-made) drones over the Ukrainian capital, and local officials said that two Russian missiles were shot down in the city's sky.

In turn, Reuters news agency quoted the Southern Command of the Ukrainian forces as saying that Russian bombing targeted the city of Odessa.

In Dnipro, several explosions were heard in the area as a result of Russian missile strikes, according to local authorities.

The authorities declared a state of air alert in Kyiv and other regions, and attributed this to the threat of missile launches in conjunction with the flight of Russian aircraft over the Caspian Sea.

And the authorities in Kyiv called on its citizens to hide in shelters and follow their instructions to prevent any missile attack.

These developments come after the missile attacks launched by Russia on Tuesday on vital Ukrainian facilities, which Ukrainian officials said were the largest since the war began on February 24.

Donetsk battles

Also in field developments, Oleksiy Aristovich - an advisor to President Zelensky - said in a video clip he posted on the Internet today, Thursday, that the Russians are launching simultaneous attacks in Donetsk after they strengthened their ranks with forces withdrawing from the Kherson region (southern Ukraine).

Aristovich added that the battles are taking place in Bakhmut, Pavlivka, Maryanka, and Voldar.

He added that part of the Russian forces withdrawing from Kherson was directed to launch attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the Donbass, while another part is being directed to Zaporizhia (southeast) and possibly to Kharkiv (northeast).

For his part, Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said that the Ukrainian forces repelled attacks on the cities of Avdiivka and Belorovka, noting that the Russian forces coming from Kherson began to deploy in Donetsk.

And the Ukrainian Staff Command stated that its forces had repelled 9 Russian advance attempts in the Donetsk region during the past few days.

In Luhansk Province, the Ukrainian Staff Command stated that 50 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in a bombing targeting a Russian forces position near the town of "Deniz Hinko Fu" in the province.

Last Friday, the Russian forces completed their withdrawal from the city of Kherson, in light of the progress made by the Ukrainian forces in their counterattack to restore Kherson Province as a whole, after it had previously recovered most of Kharkiv Province, cities and towns in Donetsk.

Kherson is the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russian forces have controlled since the war began.

Ukrainian American agreement

Politically, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Kyiv and Washington agree that Russia bears full responsibility for what he described as "missile terrorism" and its consequences in Ukraine, Poland and Moldova.

Kuleba stressed - in contact with his US counterpart Anthony Blinken - the need to accelerate the delivery of air defense systems to Ukraine, especially the "Patriot" systems.

On the other hand, US President Joe Biden today, Thursday, questioned the assertions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the missile that fell in Polish territory two days ago was a Russian missile.

In Biden's statements after his return to the White House after his participation in the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, the US president said that Zelensky's words contradict existing evidence.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the missile that fell in Poland, killing two people, was most likely fired by Ukrainian air defenses.

While the US Secretary of Defense said that Russia ultimately bears responsibility for what happened because of its war on Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it had summoned the Polish ambassador to Russia and called on Warsaw not to get involved in what it described as Kyiv's provocations.

No public negotiations

In a related context, the Kremlin accused Ukraine today, Thursday, of changing its positions regarding holding peace talks between the two countries, and said that it did not envision entering into public negotiations with it, and called on Washington to push Kyiv towards diplomacy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference that the United States is able to take Russia's concerns into account and could encourage Kyiv to return to the negotiating table if it wanted to.

He added that Ukraine had changed its position regarding willingness to negotiate with Moscow several times during the 9-month-old conflict and could not be relied upon.

Peskov told reporters that they negotiate first, then refuse to negotiate, then enact a law banning any kind of negotiations, and then say they want negotiations, but public negotiations.

"That is why it is difficult to imagine open negotiations... One thing is for sure, the Ukrainians do not want any negotiations," he added.

Peskov said that in light of this, Moscow will continue what it calls a "special military operation," and that the missile strikes on targets across Ukraine were the result of Kyiv's unwillingness to sit down to the negotiating table.

international investigation

For its part, the United Nations announced today that a delegation affiliated with it will visit Ukraine before the end of this year, to conduct investigations about human rights violations there.

In a speech at the Security Council, Rosemary Di Carlo, the organization's deputy secretary-general for political affairs, said that the Ukrainians were being subjected to the heaviest bombardment since the beginning of the war.

She explained that a United Nations committee is planning to visit Ukraine for the second time, before the end of 2022, to investigate human rights violations there.

She noted that international law prohibits attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.

She stated that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights continues to document human rights violations in Ukraine.

According to the United Nations, the Russian-Ukrainian war has so far claimed the lives of more than 6,500 people, and has injured more than 10,000 others.