Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said Russian “kamikaze drones” hit Kyiv early on Monday. Zelensky said Russia had launched a barrage of drone and missile attacks across the country, but that the strikes would not "break" Ukrainians. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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8:50pm: US condemns Russia 'war crimes' after deadly drone strike on Kyiv
The United States will hold Russia accountable for "war crimes", the White House has said, hours after Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones during morning rush hour, killing at least four people in an apartment building in downtown Kyiv.
Russian forces also targeted infrastructure across the country in the second wave of air strikes in a week.
President Joe Biden's press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the White House “strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today” and said the attack “continues to demonstrate Putin’s brutality”.
A pregnant woman was among four people killed in the attack on the residential building, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi said there had been deaths in other cities but did not provide a full toll.
6:15pm: Ukraine says 108 women freed in swap with Russia
Ukraine says it has swapped more than 100 prisoners with Russia in what it describes as the first all-female exchange with Moscow after nearly eight months of war.
"Another large-scale exchange of prisoners of war was carried out today ... we freed 108 women from captivity. It was the first all-female exchange," the Ukraine presidency's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on social media.
There was no immediate word on the swap from Russian officials.
6:10pm: Russian jet crashes into residential building near Ukraine border
A military aircraft crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Yeysk on Monday, Russian news agencies have said, citing witnesses and the defence ministry.
Unconfirmed footage on social media showed a large fireball erupting from what appeared to be a multi-storey building. There was no immediate information on casualties.
RIA news agency said the plane, an Su-34, crashed during a training flight from a military airfield. TASS said the crash was caused by an engine fire.
Yeysk is located on the Sea of Azov which separates southern Ukraine and southern Russia.
5:10pm: Russia faces internal turmoil, says ex-diplomat who quit over war
Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has set Russia on a path towards turmoil that could unseat the Kremlin chief, trigger civil war or even ultimately break the country apart, says a Russian diplomat who resigned over the war.
Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, resigned in May because he felt the war had shown how repressive and warped his homeland had become.
In a 6,500 word critique of Putin's Russia, published by Foreign Affairs, Bondarev said the state was infested by sycophantic "yes men", enabling Putin to make big decisions in an echo chamber of his own propaganda.
"If Putin is kicked out of office, Russia’s future will be deeply uncertain," Bondarev, who worked at the foreign ministry from 2002 to 2022, wrote in the article.
"It’s entirely possible his successor will try to carry on the war, especially given that Putin’s main advisers hail from the security services," he added. "But no one in Russia commands his stature, so the country would likely enter a period of political turbulence. It could even descend into chaos."
4:05pm: Shelling cuts external power to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant in southern Ukraine was operating on emergency diesel generators on Monday after Russian shelling cut off its external power supply, Ukraine's state nuclear energy company said.
Energoatom said the backup generators had kicked in after the only substation supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid was damaged before dawn – in the latest such incident affecting the nuclear plant.
Although the plant's six reactors have been shut down for weeks, they need a constant supply of electricity to keep the nuclear fuel inside cool and prevent a meltdown.
Energoatom said Russia was now targeting all the substations supplying Ukrainian nuclear power stations with electricity, an accusation that Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom did not immediately comment on.
2:55pm: State TV journalist who denounced Ukraine offensive flees Russia
Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state television journalist who famously protested against the Ukraine war during a live broadcast, has fled the country after being put on a wanted list, her lawyer has said.
"Ovsyannikova and her daughter left Russia a few hours after departing from the address where she was under house arrest. They are in Europe now," Ovsyannikova's lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov told AFP.
"They are fine. They are waiting until they can talk about publicly, but for now it is not safe," he added.
The former editor at Channel One made global headlines in March when she barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya (Time) evening news, holding a poster reading "No War".
She was placed under house arrest from August after she held a lone protest in mid-July near the Kremlin carrying a poster that read "Putin is a murderer. His soldiers are fascists".
12:54pm: Russia says it launched major attack on Ukrainian infrastructure
Russia's defence ministry said on Monday it had carried out a large-scale attack on military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine using high-precision weapons.
In its daily briefing the defence ministry said it had hit "all designated targets" in the latest bombardment of Ukrainian cities and also thwarted an attempt by Ukraine to breach its defences in the southern Kherson region.
"During the day, Russia's armed forces continued to strike with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons at military command facilities and Ukraine's energy system. All designated objects were hit," the Russian defence ministry said.
12:43pm: Rocket attacks kill several people in Ukraine’s Sumy region, governor says
Russian rocket attacks killed three people and injured nine in Ukraine’s eastern region of Sumy, regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said on social media.
"At 5:20 (0220 GMT) in the morning, three Russian rockets hit a facility of civil infrastructure. At least three people died. Nine are injured. There are still people under the rubble," Zhyvytsky said on social media.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal earlier said Russian strikes had hit energy facilities in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
12:03pm: At least three killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv building, Zelensky aide says
Three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on a residential building in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday morning, an official in the presidential office said.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that 19 people had been rescued from the residential building and rescue work was continuing.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi reported several deaths across the country following the Russian attacks, but did not give a more precise death toll.
11:29am: Russia's Medvedev warns Israel against supplying arms to Ukraine
Russia's former leader Dmitry Medvedev warned Israel on Monday against supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying any move to bolster Kyiv's forces would severely damage bilateral ties.
"Israel appears to be getting ready to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime. A very reckless move. It would destroy all bilateral relations between our countries," the former president and prime minister said in a statement on Telegram.
11:09am: Russia attacked 'critical infrastructure' in three regions, says Ukraine's PM
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday that Russian strikes had hit critical infrastructure in three regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages across the country.
"Russian terrorists once again attacked the energy infrastructure of Ukraine in three regions," Shmyhal said, pointing to five strikes in Kyiv as well as attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions. "Hundreds of settlements were cut off as a result of the attack," he said.
11:00am: Russian strike on Kyiv building kills one, wounds three, says mayor
The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv said Monday that at least one person was killed following a series of Russian drone attacks that struck a residential building in the centre of the city.
"The remains of one woman were recovered from the rubble of a house in Shevchenkivskyi district, where an explosion occurred as a result of a drone attack. Another person is under the rubble. Three people were hospitalised," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
10:13am: Russian kamikaze drones strike Kyiv in attack of 'desperation'
Ukraine said on Monday that Russia had attacked Kyiv with a swarm of "kamikaze drones", in what the president's office said was an act of desperation nearly eight months into Russia's invasion.
At least four kamikaze drones are reported to have hit the capital, including in residential areas. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 18 people had been rescued from the rubble.
FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris Trent provides more details below.
9:30am: Zelensky says Russian strikes 'won't be able to break' Ukrainians
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russia had launched a barrage of drone and missile attacks across the country but that the attacks would not "break" Ukrainians.
"All night and all morning, the enemy terrorises the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. The enemy can attack our cities but it won't be able to break us," he said.
Zelensky confirmed a residential building in Kyiv had been hit, after Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been trapped under the rubble.
8:26am: EU to launch training mission for Ukraine troops
The EU is set to step up its military support for Ukraine on Monday by launching a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers and providing €500 million more for weapons.
Foreign ministers from the bloc's 27 member states are expected to sign off on the decisions at a meeting in Luxembourg and diplomats say the mission should become operational next month.
"It's a big first for the EU," said one European diplomat. "We've never done a training mission of that scope."
After almost eight months of war, Ukraine's forces are making progress on the battlefield and Kyiv's western backers are keen to make sure its troops have the capacity to keep fighting.
8:09am: Families try to find their bearings after surviving Russian occupation
On a street in the eastern Ukraine city of Izyum with barely a house still standing, a sign reads, 'people with three small children'. Inside, a young family is trying to find their bearings after surviving the worst of the Russian invasion and occupation. FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris Trent, Mélina Huet, Raïd Abu Zaideh, Yuri Shyvala and Denys Denysov filed this report.
7:00am: Kyiv attacked by 'kamikaze drones', says Ukrainian presidency
Kyiv was attacked by "kamikaze drones" early Monday, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said after several explosions were heard in the central Shevchenkivsky district of the capital.
"The Russians think it will help them, but it shows their desperation," he said on social media.
6:47am: Ukraine war pushes 4 million children into poverty, says UN
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic fallout have thrown 4 million children into poverty across eastern Europe and Central Asia, the UN children's agency said Monday.
"Children are bearing the heaviest burden of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine," UNICEF said.
The conflict "and rising inflation have driven an additional four million children across eastern Europe and Central Asia into poverty, a 19 percent increase since 2021", it said.
UNICEF drew its conclusions from a study of data from 22 countries.
6:30am: Several explosions heard in Kyiv
Several explosions were heard Monday morning in Kyiv, exactly a week after Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital, AFP journalists said.
Three blasts occurred between 6:35am and 6:58am (0335 GMT and 0358 GMT). Air raid sirens sounded shortly before the first explosion.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one of the blasts was in the capital's central Shevchenkivsky district.
"All services are on their way to the spot. Details later. The air alert continues. Stay in shelters!" Klitschko said on social media.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
