Russian airstrikes targeted the city of Dnipro overnight killing at least one person, Ukraine’s emergency services reported on Friday.
In video footage, firefighters can be seen battling one ferocious blaze after the first missile strike on the southeastern Ukrainian city.
The country’s State Emergency Service said Russian airstrikes had hit an apartment building and landed near a kindergarten in the Novokodatsky district of the city.
A tweet from the emergency service said: “On March 11, at about 06:10 in Dnipro, there were three air strikes in the city: hitting a kindergarten and an apartment building near the kindergarten and hitting a two-story shoe factory.”
Explosions were also heard in the western cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk overnight - both attacks targeted military airfields.
The head of Lutsk’s regional administration Yuriy Pohulyayko, said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, while a further six were injured.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak issued an update on Friday morning, where he claimed cities were now subject to “devastating blows”.
He said: “Ukrainian big cities are again subjected to devastating blows. The 1st explosions took place in Lutsk shutting down 2 boiler houses.
“Ivano-Frankivsk - 3 powerful explosions. Dnipro is also under attack. Russia’s destructive war against civilians and major Ukrainian cities continues.”
Despite the latest attacks, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed that Russian forces have yet to achieve their military objectives.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 11 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 11, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/9SIvyYxJxe
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6agVnIHuZn
There are fears Russia is now planning chemical attacks in Ukraine after accusing America of preparing biological weapons.
The UN Security Council will convene on Friday at Moscow’s request to discuss its claims that the US is carrying out “military biological activities” in Ukraine.
Boris Johnson warned that Mr Putin’s “barbaric” regime may be preparing to deploy chemical weapons by claiming to be pre-empting a Ukrainian strike.
He told Sky’s Beth Rigby: “The stuff that you’re hearing about chemical weapons is straight out of their playbook. They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans.
“And so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have as a sort of a maskirovka — a fake story ready to go. You’ve seen it in Syria. You saw it even in the UK”
