Ukraine joining the NATO alliance would "guarantee" the outbreak of World War III, Russia said today in an ominous warning.
It comes as a UN General Assembly resolution called Moscow's annexation of Ukrainian territory "illegal" and Ukraine's allies committed more military aid.
Russia repeated its position that the West, by helping Ukraine, indicated that "they are a direct party to the conflict" and warned the admission of Ukraine to NATO could trigger World War Three.
"Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to a World War Three," deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Alexander Venediktov, told state news agency TASS on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced a surprise bid for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance at the end of September, after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a ceremony in Moscow to proclaim four partially occupied regions as annexed Russian land.
In the past 24 hours, Russian missiles hit more than 40 settlements, while Ukraine's air force carried out 32 strikes on 25 Russian targets, Ukraine's Armed Forces General Staff said.
Mayor of the port city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevich, said in a social media post that the southern city was "massively shelled".
"A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors were completely destroyed, the rest - under rubble. Rescuers are working on the site,'' he said.
A shipbuilding centre and a port on the Southern Bug river off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has suffered heavy Russian bombardments throughout the war.
Russia also targeted a settlement in the region of Ukraine's capital Kyiv using explosive drones early on Thursday, the region's administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
Governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said based on preliminary information the strikes were caused by Iranian-made loitering munitions. These are often known as "kamikaze drones".
Critical infrastructure facilities were hit by the drones, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Zelenskiy's office.
Missiles struck more than 30 multi-storey and private houses, gas pipelines and power lines in the city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and more than 2,000 families were left without electricity, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report. NATO's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Russia's missile attacks were a sign of weakness.
"Russia is actually losing on the battlefield," Stoltenberg said.
Putin has intensified the conflict as his forces continue to lose ground, ordering the call-up of hundreds of thousands of reservists, proclaiming the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territory and repeatedly threatening to use nuclear weapons to protect Russia.
Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons to protect Russian soil, which he says includes the four regions he declared annexed last month.
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he doubted Putin would resort to nuclear weapons. A senior NATO official said a Russian nuclear strike would almost certainly trigger a "physical response" from Ukraine's allies and potentially NATO.
