At least 20 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in waves of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Monday.
Kiev was among the cities worst impacted with seven dead and at least nine injured, the city administration said.
Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine was also badly hit and at least 10 people there were killed and more than 30 injured.
In Kiev, a large children’s hospital was also hit, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He said it was not yet clear how many people there had been killed.
He published a short video showing destroyed hospital rooms and traces of blood on the floor.
Zelensky spoke of people being buried.
“Everyone is helping to clear the rubble doctors and other people,’’ he wrote.
Residents in Kiev’s centre heard two dozen explosions, presumably the result of anti-aircraft missiles.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris fell in four of the city’s neighbourhoods.
The Russian army fired cruise missiles and several Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at targets in the city that is home to three million people, the Ukrainian Air Force said earlier.
Damage was also reported in Dnipro.
Other targets included the frontline cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
The Russian military used more than 40 missiles in the attack, Zelensky said.
It was unusual that the heavy attack took place during the day at the beginning of the working week.
The embattled nation already saw airstrikes by drones, cruise missiles and missiles during the night.
Ukraine has been trying to repel a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022 and depended largely on Western support.
Kiev repeatedly urged its allies to provide even more modern air defence systems. (dpa/NAN)