Russia kills at least 23 in biggest Ukraine airstrikes in nearly 2 months

Russia hurled missiles at Ukraine cities as people slept overnight, killing at least 23 people in its first large-scale airstrikes in nearly two months.

New air alerts sounded across much of eastern and southern Ukraine and some central regions Friday evening, with officials appealing to residents not to ignore the warnings.

The wave of Russian missile attacks overnight was the first since early March. Russia had launched such attacks almost weekly for most of the winter, but they tapered off as spring arrived, with Western countries saying Moscow was running out of missiles.

In the central city of Uman, around 215 kilometres south of Kyiv, firefighters battled a raging blaze at a residential apartment building that had been struck on an upper floor. Officials said at least 21 civilians were killed there, including several children.

Rescue workers clambered through a huge pile of smoldering rubble, carrying a body away on a stretcher. A man wearing a face mask sobbed as he watched, and a woman came to comfort him.

"At first the windows were blown out, then came the explosion," a resident of the apartment building who gave her name only as Olga said as rescue workers dug through the debris. "Everything flew out."

One of the people killed in the Uman attack was a 75-year-old who was in her apartment in a neighbouring building and suffered internal bleeding from the shockwave of the blast, according to emergency personnel on the scene.

It was not clear what Russia was targeting in Friday's attacks though it has regularly struck civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities throughout the winter.

The wave of Russian missile attacks overnight was the first since early March. Russia had launched such attacks almost weekly for most of the winter, but they tapered off as spring arrived, with Western countries believing Moscow was running out of missiles.

Woman, child killed in Dnipro

Moscow said the targets of its overnight strikes were locations of Ukrainian reserve troops, which it had struck successfully, preventing them from reaching the front. It supplied no evidence to support this.

Russia claims it does not deliberately target civilians, but its airstrikes and shelling have killed thousands of people and devastated cities and towns across Ukraine. Kyiv says strikes on cities far from the front lines have no military purpose apart from intimidating and harming civilians, making them a war crime.

A 31-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter were also killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were also wounded, and a private home and business were damaged.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

"This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post alongside images of the wreckage. "And it will."

The capital Kyiv was also rocked by explosions, with officials reporting that air defence units had destroyed 11 missiles and two drones.

Two people were wounded in the town of Ukrayinka just south of Kyiv, officials said.

Explosions were also reported after midnight in the central cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava, and in Mykolaiv in the south, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

Russia's defence ministry said the aim of the strikes was to prevent Ukraine from bringing reserve forces to the front line.

"Overnight, the Russian Air Force carried out a collective rocket strike using long-range high-precision weapons targeting temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian army reserve units," Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov told a briefing.

"The target of the strike was achieved. All designated facilities were struck. The advance of the enemy's reserves into combat zones was thwarted," Konashenkov said.

Ukraine counteroffensive expected soon

Ukraine said on Friday it was nearly ready to launch a huge ground assault to retake occupied land.

The war is coming to a crucial juncture after a months-long Russian winter offensive that gained little ground despite the bloodiest fighting so far. Kyiv is preparing a counter-offensive using hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West, hoping to drive Russia out of the nearly a fifth of the country that it occupies and claims to have annexed.

"As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it," Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleskii Reznikov told an online news briefing.

Ukraine was "to a high percentage ready" to launch its campaign, he said. Its new modern weapons would serve as an "iron fist."

NATO announced that its allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98 per cent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia's invasion and war, strengthening Kyiv's capabilities as it contemplates launching a counteroffensive.

Along with more than 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine's allies have sent "vast amounts of ammunition" and trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigades. Some NATO partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, have also provided armoured vehicles.

"This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.