Ukrainian officials said that Russian missile strikes targeted vital infrastructure facilities across the country, as it declared an air alert amid fears of an expansion of the attack, while Britain said it would support Kyiv with Challenger 2 tanks and artillery systems.
Al-Jazeera correspondent said that sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and throughout the southern Ukrainian provinces.
For its part, the Ukrainian army said that its defenses had repelled new Russian strikes in the southern provinces of Mykolaiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia and Dnipro.
The mayor of Mykolaiv said that the ground defenses responded to Russian missiles in the sky of the province, warning residents of a massive missile attack.
Reuters news agency quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that the Russian strikes also targeted vital facilities in Kharkiv (northeast) and Lviv (west).
Ukrainians wait inside a subway station in Kyiv during the missile strike (Reuters)
Kyiv bombing
This comes after Russian missiles targeted this morning, Saturday, important infrastructure in the capital, as the Kyiv Military Administration said in a statement, "One of the infrastructure facilities was hit, no serious damage or fires occurred, and all emergency teams are now working on the site. No one was injured."
Okranergo, which runs the power grid, said its workers were racing against time to repair the damage and that the grid was suffering from power shortages caused by previous attacks.
For his part, the mayor of Kyiv said that the wreckage of a missile fell in an uninhabited area in the Holosievsky district, west of the city, and caused a fire, but did not cause any injuries.
On the eastern fronts, the governor of the Donetsk province of Kyiv, Pavlo Kirilenko, said that the cities of Solidar and Bakhmut are still under the control of the Ukrainian army, despite the fact that the Russian army announced on Saturday that it had fully taken control of Solidar.
Kirilenko said Soledar, near Bakhmut, was one of the "hottest spots" on the front.
heavy weapons
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today that his country will send tanks to Ukraine to help its army "push the Russian forces back".
In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sunak pledged to send Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems as evidence of "the UK's intention to intensify our support for Ukraine."
For his part, Zelensky welcomed the British decision, saying on Twitter that it "will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but will also send the right signal to other partners."
Britain's announcement comes within a series of Western pledges that open the door to supplying the Ukrainian army with heavy weapons that it had not previously obtained, despite Kyiv's repeated demands.
Poland announced last Wednesday that it would send German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, followed by Finland, which confirmed that it would participate in these efforts.