Russian air strikes killed at least 13 in Ukraine on Thursday, including one in Kyiv, in attacks extending as far as the western city of Lviv, forcing neighbouring Poland to scramble fighter jets to secure its airspace.
The attacks come as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returns from the United States, where he said President Donald Trump agreed to give Ukraine licences for Patriot missiles.
Air raid alerts sounded across most regions of Ukraine, with an eyewitness saying explosions were heard in Kyiv. A few non-residential sites caught fire, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.
One person was killed and two more injured in the capital, emergency services said.
In Zelenskyy's hometown, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, two girls aged 5 and 12 were among six people killed, with eight injured in what Oleksandr Vilkul, the city's defence council head, said was a direct strike by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile.
"A dark night," Vilkul said on Telegram, adding that the missile, launched from Russia's Voronezh region, struck the home of a large family. He warned the death toll could increase as emergency workers clear away rubble.
In Lviv, near Poland, rescue workers were clearing rubble to reach people trapped after Russian missiles damaged two apartment buildings and injured 15, officials said.
Earlier Zelenskyy had warned a massive Russian attack was likely, saying the safety of Ukrainians depended on the willingness of allies to provide anti-missile defences.
"It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people's lives depends directly on their willingness," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
Poland, a member of the European Union and NATO, scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace amid Russian air strikes, its armed forces said on X.
A warehouse of Russian top online retailer Wildberries caught fire in the western city of Penza after Ukraine's drone attack, regional governor Oleg Melnichenko said on Telegram.
One person was injured and about 200 people evacuated from the site, he added.
Drone strikes have damaged nearly a dozen Wildberries warehouses recently, destroying about 10% of storage capacity and inflicting losses on tens of thousands of small businesses using the platform, the company and local authorities say.
Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank, has warned it may have to boost loan-loss provisions as attacks on Wildberries hit the finances of online retailers and their suppliers.
Reuters could not independently verify all the reports. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war following Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
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