The mayor of eastern Ukraine‘s Kharkiv reported on Thursday that Russian missiles had struck the city and caused a series of explosions.

Ihor Terekhov said officials were clarifying what had been hit and whether there were any casualties.

Ukraine has been rocked by a fresh round of Russian missile strikes this morning as blasts were heard in several cities.

Ukraine’s presidential office adviser Oleksiv Arestovych wrote on Facebook: “A massive air raid. More than 100 missiles in several waves”.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Odesa, according to local media and Reuters. Power cuts were also announced in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Authorities said that they had switched off the electricity to minimise the damage to critical infrastructure facilities if they are hit.

Several regions of Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, have been hit by multiple missile attacks this morning.

Air raid sirens rang out across the country and in Kyiv the regional administration said that air defence systems have been activated to fend off the continuing attack.

The attack is the latest in a series of Russian strikes targeting vital infrastructure across Ukraine. Moscow has launched these attacks on a weekly basis since October.

Russia is facing difficulties in countering air threats deep inside the country and defending strategic air base, the British defence ministry said today, citing the attack on its Engels Air Base which was attacked for the second time in three weeks on Monday.

“Russia has long given a very high priority to maintaining advanced ground based air defences, but it is increasingly clear that it is struggling to counter air threats deep inside Russia,” the ministry said today in its latest intelligence update.

It pointed to Russian media reports blaming the uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the strike on the facility, one of the main operating bases of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.

“One challenge for Russia is probably the exceptional demand on its fleet of modern, medium-range air defence systems, such as SA-22 Pantsir, which would typically be expected to take a major role in countering UAVs,” the MoD said.

It added: “As well as providing point defence for strategic sites such as Engels, these systems are currently required in large number to protect field headquarters near the front line in Ukraine.”

Russia has sent more ships, including two surface and submarine missile carriers, on combat duty in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian southern operational command said today.

It added that these ships are equipped with 20 Kalibr missiles.

Officials have sounded air raid alerts across every Ukrainian oblast, including occupied Crimea this morning, reported The Kyiv Independent.

People have been asked to immediately take shelter.

Shareef Amin, 40, nicknamed Rambo, suffered wounds to every limb when he was hit by Putin’s troops in October.

He was buried under the body of a fellow soldier in a trench, but managed to drag himself out before travelling abroad for treatment.

Now he is finally back in the UK after being airlifted out, and is awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Experts monitoring the ongoing fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut region are assessing the Russian forces to have reached a crescendo with visible factors like top Ukrainian military officers being able to go to frontline without any difficulty.

Citing the indicators, the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said: “Senior Ukrainian officials are visiting frontline positions unimpeded.”

“Russian airborne forces are reportedly augmenting Wagner” and that the Russian forces are “operating in squad-sized assault groups due to combat losses,” indicating that the fighting is inching towards a stalemate.

“Culminated Russian forces could continue to carry out assaults but would be very unlikely to make operationally significant gains,” the think tank said.

Russia will not use Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’ as a plank for negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine, Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said todya.

The top minister from the Putin regime added that he believes Kyiv is still not ready for real peace talks.

He added that Ukraine’s idea of driving Russia out of eastern region and Crimea with western help was “an illusion” despite the ground reports which show a fierce counterattack from Ukrainian soldiers who have been fighting the grinding battle there since the summer now.

Russian forces have intensified mortar and artillery attacks on the city of Kherson in a renewed bid to retake the city by military force as the critical southern port city.

More than 25 settlements around Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have been shelled, Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces said, adding that the relentless attacks have caused civilian casualties along with damage to civilian infrastructure.