Kyiv [Ukraine], August 26 : Explosions were heard in Kyiv, and other cities across Ukraine in the early morning hours on Monday, as Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack, reported The Kyiv Independent.
Air raid sirens sounded across the country just before 6 a.m.
Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, first said that "several districts" in the capital were without power.
He then indicated that there were issues with the water supply on the city's right bank. According to Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, there were also explosions there.
Odesa, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Kropyvnytskyi, and Kryvyi Rih were also claimed to have had explosions, as per The Kyiv Independent. Ihor Polishchuk, the mayor of Lutsk, in northwest Ukraine, said that an apartment block had sustained damage. He later stated that one person had also lost his life in the incident.
The Ukrainian Air Force initially reported the activity of 11 Russian bomber aircraft as well as numerous kamikaze drones heading towards cities across the country, however, it later said another six Russian bomber aircraft were in the air.
The launch of multiple groups of missiles of various types was also reported.
Further details are awaited.
Meanwhile, as many as five people were killed and 13 others were wounded during an overnight Ukrainian strike on Belgorod, Al Jazeera reported, citing officials in the Russian region.
Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced the death toll on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday morning, saying three minors were among those wounded in the attack on the settlement of Rakitnoye.
Notably, Kyiv has increased its strikes inside Russian territory after launching a surprise ground offensive into Russia's Kursk region two weeks ago.
In a separate incident in Ukraine, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, alleged on Sunday that an overnight Russian strike had hit a hotel in Kramatorsk.
Two journalists were wounded in the attack and a third one is missing, Filashkin said, adding that they were British, American and Ukrainian nationals and that a search operation was underway.
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