Russian military have attacked Kyiv with an air assault and promised more missile assaults following the sinking of one of their top ships in the Black Sea.
Air raid sirens were going off across Ukraine throughout last night with powerful explosions heard in the capital and other cities.
Loud explosions were also heard in the southern city of Kherson, the eastern city of Kharkiv and in Ukraine’s western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, on Thursday night, repot Mirror Online.
Footage shared on social media have displayed the sky above Kyiv lit up by explosions in what appear to be the most serious attacks since the Russian army began to withdraw from the area earlier this month.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said that there had been three explosions in Kyiv and believes the attacks are a response by Vladimir Putin to the sinking of the Moskva, the pride of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
She tweeted: “3 explosions in #Kyiv right now. One after the other. The air raid warning has been on for an hour. Most likely #putin gone livid because of the #Moskva sinking. Oh well, we’ll just keep standing to #Russia’s annoyance.”
She earlier wrote: “Sirens in every single region of #Ukraine. This means again that #Russia launched missiles and fighter jets. All over #Ukraine. Concentrating in the east of course.”
Another Twitter user in Kyiv filmed what appeared to be a missile in the sky and said that lights have gone out in the city.
They wrote: “After a powerful explosion, something important is on fire and the light went out in part of Kiev.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military target on the edge of Kyiv with cruise missiles overnight and promised more and bigger strikes against the Ukrainian capital.
It claimed the strikes were in response to “sabotage” on Russian territory, and that Russian forces had taken control of the Ilyich Steel Plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Russia said on Wednesday that 1,026 soldiers of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had surrendered near the steel plant.
It comes after the country admitted its lead warship in the Black Sea sank on after an explosion and fire that Ukraine claimed was caused by a missile strike.
It is a blow to Moscow as it readied for new attacks that were likely to determine the conflict’s outcome.
The Moskva, Russia’s flagship in its Black Sea fleet, sank as it was being towed to port in stormy weather, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.
Russia said earlier that over 500 crew aboard the Soviet-era missile cruiser were evacuated after ammunition on board exploded. Ukraine said it hit the warship with a Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile.
Russia, which has not acknowledged an attack, said the incident is under investigation.
“While the cruiser ‘Moskva’ was being towed to the destination port, the ship lost stability due to damage to the hull from the fire,” the defence ministry said.
“In the stormy sea conditions, the ship sank.”
Russia’s navy has been bombarding Ukrainian cities on the Black Sea nearly 50 days after it launched the invasion.
Residents of Odesa and Mariupol, on the adjacent Azov Sea, have been bracing for new Russian attacks.
Russian forces have pulled back from some northern parts of Ukraine in the past couple of weeks after suffering heavy losses and failing to take the capital Kyiv.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow is redeploying for a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Russia’s navy has fired cruise missiles into Ukraine and its Black Sea activities are crucial to supporting land operations in the south and east, where it is battling to seize full control of the port of Mariupol, its main target in the Donbas.
Russia said on Wednesday more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines from one of the units still holding out in Mariupol had surrendered. Ukrainian officials did not comment.
If taken, Mariupol would be the first major city to fall to Russian forces since they invaded, allowing Moscow to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern Donbas areas and the Crimea region it seized and annexed in 2014.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
