A devastating Ukrainian missile attack struck the headquarters of Russia‘s Black Sea Fleet today. 

The Sevastopol HQ building is understood to have been hit with a Storm Shadow missile, the type supplied by Britain and France capable of holding a warhead of nearly 1000 lbs. 

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that one person is missing, after initially claiming they had died in the strike. Initial reports suggested that six people had been wounded. 

Dozens of ambulances were reported at the headquarters in Sevastopol, the naval port in occupied Crimea.

The HQ building was on fire, had partially collapsed and suffered ‘severe damage’, according to one report.

Debris from the missile attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet was scattered over hundreds of metres.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed that five other missiles were shot down, but one made it through its defences.  

‘According to preliminary information, people who were on the street at the time of the attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters were not injured,’ said Putin appointed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.

A fire continued to burn at the headquarters building, admitted the governor.

Police cordoned off two blocks around the missile-hit building.

‘The enemies launched a missile attack on the fleet headquarters,’ said Razvozhayev. 

He warned of the risk of a second attack and urged locals to stay away from the city.

‘A fragment [of a missile] fell close to the Lunacharsky Theatre. All emergency services arrived at the scene.

‘Information about the victims is being clarified. Please remain calm. And do not post photos and videos.’

The occupation official said: ‘Another attack is possible. Please do not travel to the city centre. Don’t leave buildings.

‘At the sound of the siren, everyone who is near the fleet headquarters should proceed to shelters.

‘Employees of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations are working on the spot.

‘Firefighters are taking all measures to put out the fire as quickly as possible. The build-up of forces and means continues.’

Prominent Russian pro-war blogger Vladimir Rogov said: ‘The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol was attacked by Ukrainian missiles.’

He said the attack was carried out ‘by British Storm Shadow missiles’, though this was not immediately confirmed.

The strike was one of the most significant of the entire war, as was the sinking of the Black Sea fleet’s flagship, the Moskva cruiser, last year. 

The Black Sea Fleet has been responsible for multiple missile attacks on Ukraine, and is central to Putin’s subjugation of around one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Other explosions hit elsewhere in Crimea including around peninsula capital Simferopol.

Ukraine has previously used Storm Shadow and Neptune missiles to target Crimea as well as kamikaze drones.

Drones were downed today in Sevastopol harbour.

The attack came as Vladimir Putin held a meeting of his security council on relations with neighbouring countries.

He was heard skirting around the attack, only mentioning ongoing developments with ‘relations with our closest neighbours and partners.’

A Russian missile attack on President Zelensky‘s home town has killed a policeman and injured at least 52 others, with civilians pulled out from the rubble of their destroyed homes.

Ten buildings were damaged in the strike on Kryvyi Rih after a wave of Russian attacks overnight in the centre and the east of the country. 

Three of the people hauled from the rubble were left in a serious condition, with photos showing smoke spewing from the ruins of a building as rescue workers carried an injured person to an ambulance. 

In one image of the aftermath a group of men can be seen pulling at concrete foundations to reveal a police officer, whose face is bloodied from the blast. Other photographs show ruined cars coated in rubble and firefighters sweeping through the wreckage.

Three administrative buildings and seven residential ones, including a high-rise, were damaged in the attack, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. 

The police administrative building was destroyed and rescue workers pulled several people out of the rubble, Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of Internal Affairs, said on Telegram. 

A Russian air strike killed three civilians and wounded four other people on Friday in the village of Odradokamianka in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson.

Three people were also injured in a missile attack in the eastern city of Sumy. 

Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry said one person was wounded in a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine.

Moscow also carried out its fifth drone attack this week on the southern Odesa region, home to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and the Danube River that are used to export grain and other agricultural products.

Russia has intensified air attacks on Ukrainian grain export infrastructure on the Danube River and in the port of Odesa since mid-July, when Moscow quit the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed safe Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.

Officials said air defences shot down 16 of the 20 drones fired by Russia overnight. The Southern military command said 14 drones had been brought down over Odesa region and two more over the southern region of Mykolaiv.

Oleh Kiper, Odesa’s regional governor, said a non-residential building had been damaged by debris from a drone but gave no further details. He reported no casualties in the region.

Also on Friday, a funeral was being held for an 18-year-old who was among 17 people killed on Wednesday in a Russian missile strike on a market in Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

The attack, which wounded at least 32 others, destroyed the market and overshadowed a two-day visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken aimed at assessing Ukraine’s three-month-old counter-offensive and signalling continued US support with the announcement of an additional one billion dollars (£801 million) in aid.

Britain announced on Friday that it will host a global food security summit in November in response to Russia’s withdrawal of a Black Sea grain deal and attacks on Ukraine’s grain supply.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in India for a Group of 20 summit, where he hopes to marshal international resources to counteract the war’s impact on the global food supply.

Sunak’s government said Royal Air Force aircraft will fly over the Black Sea as part of efforts to deter Russia from striking cargo ships transporting grain from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia is holding local elections in the part of the Kherson region it controls. 

Local elections are also being held in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In Kherson, local residents and Ukrainian activists say election poll workers have made house calls accompanied by armed soldiers.

Ukraine has dismissed the elections, calling on its allies to condemn Russia’s actions and urging them not to recognise any administration created as a result of the vote.

Zelensky said on Friday that Russian air superiority was ‘stopping’ Kyiv’s counter-offensive, complaining of the slow rate of both Western arms deliveries and sanctions on Russia.

Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration at criticism over the speed of its counter-offensive.

‘If we are not in the sky and Russia is, they stop us from the sky. They stop our counter-offensive,’ Zelensky said, calling for more ‘powerful and long-range’ weapons.

Kyiv has repeatedly asked for planes to battle Russia’s invasion, but many of its Western allies have been hesitant.

Ukraine has for weeks complained about the slow process of getting US-made F16s to improve its Soviet-era fleet.

Arms deliveries to Kyiv and new rounds of sanctions on Russia were becoming ‘complicated and slower’, Zelensky added.

Ukraine relied on Western arms deliveries to launch its long-anticipated counter-offensive this summer.

It has acknowledged the advance has been slow due to heavily-mined territory.

But Kyiv has also reported some success recently.

It declared a strategic victory last week with the capture of the southern village of Robotyne, which it said would pave the way for forces to push deeper towards Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Zelensky on Thursday singled out military units in the east and south for their fighting and military officials reported some breakthroughs in Bakhmut and near the village of Robotyne.

Russia said on Friday it had repelled numerous Ukrainian attacks along the front line and inflicted hundreds of losses on enemy forces, challenging Kyiv’s assertion that Ukraine was making slow but steady progress in its counter-offensive.

Russia controls about 18 per cent of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014 and a swathe of eastern and southern Ukraine which it took control of in 2022.

Ukraine used a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile to hit a key bridge between Crimea and Russian-held parts of the Kherson region in Ukraine, pro-Moscow sources have claimed. 

Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, said the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles were likely to have been used for the attack, which damaged the road on the Chongar bridge. No casualties have been reported.

The strike comes just two days after the Kremlin warned that it would see the UK as ‘full-fledged’ participants in the war in Ukraine if the Storm Shadow missiles hit Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. 

Images show a large hole in the bridge, revealing the water below, as well as rubble strewn across the road. The damaged bridge was still standing but the extent of the internal structural damage was not immediately clear. 

Saldo vowed: ‘There will soon be a very serious answer.’ The governor described the attack as ‘another senseless action ordered from London by the Kyiv regime.’

‘It solves nothing for the results of the special operation. Just to do harm,’ Saldo added.

Crimea’s governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said specialists were examining the site to determine when traffic over the bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian-held parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, could resume.

The crossing is the closest link from Crimea to Melitopol and is a key supply route for Vladimir Putin’s forces to the disputed peninsula, and vice-versa.

One Russian report referred to the ‘barbarous shelling of civilian objects’ in describing the bridge attack.

Acting Moscow-appointed supremo of the invaded Kherson region Vladimir Saldo said: ‘According to a preliminary assessment, British Storm Shadow missiles were used. The road surface on the bridges was damaged. There are no human casualties.’

Communication between Crimea and Kherson region continues to operate via a backup route, he said.

Alexander Kots, military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said: ‘The enemy has begun to cut off Crimea from the Kherson region.

‘Storm Shadow missile strikes [have been made] on the bridge at Chongar – one of the isthmuses connecting the peninsula to the mainland.’

He saw the attack as evidence that Britain was now directly involved in the conflict.

This should entail ‘immediate strikes against decision-making centers on the territory of Ukraine’, he said.

It comes two days after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu warned the UK and US they would be seen as ‘full-fledged’ participants in the Ukraine war if Storm Shadow and HIMARS missiles are used to hit targets in Russia or Crimea.

Shoigu warned he will target ‘decision-making centres’ in Ukraine – implying he plans to order his military to target Volodymyr Zelensky and his government leaders in Kyiv.

Shoigu said on Tuesday: ‘According to our information, the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is planning to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles. 

‘The use of these missiles outside the area of the special military operation would mean a full-fledged involvement of the US and UK in the conflict entailing immediate strikes on the decision-making centres in Ukraine.’

His claim that Crimea is part of Russia is disputed by the West – and international law – which regards it as Ukrainian.

Russia is rattled at the power and accuracy of the Storm Shadow with a range of 155 miles, which has been fired from Ukrainian Su-24 war planes.

‘The Kyiv regime is employing a large number of Western weapons and elite formations whose personnel have been trained by NATO specialists,’ Shoigu told the collegium of the Russian defence ministry earlier this week.

So far Ukraine has used long-range British-supplied Storm Shadow and US-provided HIMARS to hit targets in Russian-occupied areas of mainland Ukraine, not including Crimea.

At least one Russian general and one colonel have been killed in Ukrainian attacks using the UK Storm Shadow missile.

Col Sergei Postovalov, 53, was fatally wounded in a 10 June strike which hit a Russian command post close to Henichesk minutes after Putin’s deputy premier Denis Manturov had visited. 

Putin was reported to have visited the site in April.

Postovalov was a colonel in the Russian Interior Ministry forces.

His death follows the killing of Russian army Major-General Sergey Goryachev, 52, in a strike in annexed Zaporizhzhia region earlier this month – also seen as in a Storm Shadow attack carried out by Ukraine’s forces. 

Last week, Yevgeny Balitsky, Moscow-appointed head of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine, admitted the weapons are causing ‘trouble’ and are even more problematic for the Kremlin’s armies than the US-supplied HIMARS systems.

His words confirm the impression that the long-range Storm Shadow has been a game changer for the Ukrainians as Kyiv launches its counteroffensive. 

‘They certainly give us trouble with their missiles, I must say, especially Storm Shadow,’ said Balitsky.

‘We’ve somehow learned how to shoot down [US-supplied] HIMARS.

But the [British-supplied] Shadow ones are even harder. They arrive, and have a bigger radius. So it’s a problem for us.

‘In fact, our air defence is having a hard time with [Storm Shadow].

‘It shoots them down, but there’s only a 50 per cent chance of the missiles being shot down.’ 

He added: ‘Out of four, three have recently reached us.

‘Sometimes two make it. The missile is modern, although it is not the newest, but it is fast enough, it flies properly. I mean, at different speeds, at varying altitudes, changing modes, so it is not easy to shoot down.’

Britain announced the supply of Anglo-French-designed Storm Shadows to Ukraine on May 11, answering a long-time demand from Kyiv for long-range missiles to help defend their territory against Putin’s invading armies.

Storm Shadows have also struck occupied port cities Berdiansk and Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, say reports. And the £2.2million-per-unit missiles were used to target Luhansk in the occupied Donbas.

The GPS-guided ground-hugging missiles with a 450kg warhead have a range of around 155 miles. The missiles allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian-held territory than was previously possible.

Storm Shadow is a low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace previously confirmed the missiles had been used by Ukraine on May 18– but declined to give further details. 

He said the missiles gave the Ukrainians the ability to strike Russian command and control centres which had been moved further behind the front line to keep them out of range of the rocket artillery systems the West had supplied to Kyiv. 

Ukraine is the only country to be publicly supplied with these missiles by the UK.

Russia faced a major bombardment today as huge explosions ripped through the occupied port of Berdiansk – with Ukraine believed to be making the most of new missiles gifted by Britain.

Footage shows the moment facilities at the port are hit with a suspected Storm Shadow missile, Britain’s most potent non-nuclear missile which can strike targets from a range of 150 miles.

A huge plume of smoke was seen rising from a location in the port area on the Sea of Azov, in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian state media outlet RT said there had been ‘casualties and destruction’ from the strike, the exact target of which was not immediately clear. 

Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov said there had been nine people reported injured. Berdiansk was first hit on Saturday in Storm Shadow missile strikes. 

Chaos was also unleashed inside Russia today, with the border region of Belgorod facing renewed attacks from the air.

Two women were reportedly killed in the Maslova Pristan settlement amid intense shelling in Shebekinsky district. 

A child and another adult were reported as wounded.

A report said an explosive device was dropped on a road from a drone.

The area is under siege from Russian anti-Putin partisans challenging the armed forces from bases inside Ukraine.

A video shows Free Russia Legion fighters inside Russia at Novaya Tavolzhanka village in Belgorod region.

Thousands of locals have evacuated border towns and villages amid fighting.

In Russian-occupied Mariupol, also on the Sea of Azov, air defences hit incoming Ukrainian missiles, according to Russian reports.

Earlier Russia faced drone attacks in Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.

In a night-time attack on Berdiansk last week, which reports suggested may also have been carried out with Storm Shadow missiles, fire was seen raining down over the port.

Videos from a residential building showed a column of flames believed to be rising over the port area following the strike. 

It was claimed a Russian store of S-300 air defence missiles was struck in the attack, but there was no immediate confirmation. 

An unnamed Russian official in Zaporizhzhia verified the attack in Berdiansk, saying the city was ‘under the Kyiv regime’s fire. Explosions were heard on the outskirts [of the city]. First responders were working at the scene’. 

MailOnline was unable to immediately verify whether British missiles were used.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace previously confirmed the missiles had been used by Ukraine on 18 May – but declined to give further details. 

He said the missiles gave the Ukrainians the ability to strike Russian command and control centres which had been moved further behind the front line to keep them out of range of the rocket artillery systems the West had supplied to Kyiv. 

Ukraine is the only country to be publicly supplied with these missiles by the UK.

Britain also became the first country to provide long-range precision missiles to Ukraine with the delivery.

The £2.2million-per-unit missiles will allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian-held territory.

They were suspected to have been used this month when Russian MP Viktor Vodolatsky sustained injuries after an attack on May 15. 

The Storm Shadow missile was first developed in 1994, but was first used by the French Ministry of Defence before being used by Britain.

The missile weighs approximately 1,300 kilograms (2,900lb), with a conventional warhead weighing 450 kilograms (990lb).

The ‘fire-and-forget’ missiles are pre-programmed before a mission and speed off at up to 621mph, reaching targets up to 350 miles away.  

The missiles were used for the first time operationally by UK forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where they were tested by the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron. 

The RAF and the French Air Force have used them against Isis. Britain also used them against Syrian forces in 2018. 

Last year, the US sent Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Ukraine to beef up offensive power.

The missiles are also capable of striking targets on land.

At around £1million-a-missile, they are significantly cheaper than the Storm Shadow missiles from Britain – but have a range capped at 150 miles and reach speeds of up to 537mph.

Both are ‘subsonic’ missiles, travelling below the speed of sound.

Defence analyst Dr James Bosbotinis said the Storm Shadow’s range allows it to hit ‘high-value hardened targets’ that ‘the adversary does not want to have attacked’ such as bunkers, as reported by Forces.net.

Ukraine also has its HIMARS rocket systems for defence, but these have a range of only 50 miles.

Russian forces have adapted by pulling their munitions out of range during clashes.

The exact number of Storm Shadow missiles sent to Ukraine has not been disclosed.

Most of the UK’s stocks have to be reserved in case of any direct conflict involving British forces.

Strategic analyst Howard Wheeldon indicated the UK could not afford to send jets as its current fleet is too small to defend the British Isles.

He told the Mail: ‘All credit to the UK government for its fast response and actions, but the sad fact is that after providing an unquantified number of probably time-expired Storm Shadow missiles, the UK has little else it can give.’

The luckiest driver in Kyiv: Motorist is inches from death when Russian missile comes down beside their car

• Incident happened on Monday and came during a rare daytime attack on Kyiv

By James Callery

Published: 12:02 EDT, 31 May 2023 | Updated: 12:25 EDT, 31 May 2023

Panicked school children today screamed in terror as they sprinted for their lives towards the safety of nearby bomb shelters as Vladimir Putin’s missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

The young children jolted in fear and covered their heads when they heard the all too familiar sound of a Russian missile smashing into a nearby street.

The classmates, many of whom were carrying rucksacks that dwarfed their small bodies, began screaming and racing along the street in a bid to reach the safety of a nearby bomb shelter in a scene that lays bare the reality of Vladimir Putin’s war.

One young boy was seen grabbing his friend’s hand as they sprinted along the pavement as Putin’s forces unleashed a barrage of rockets at the capital for the 16th time this month.

The children were closely followed by panicked residents who rushed for cover at the sound of the air sirens and explosions, just hours after a more common nighttime barrage of cruise missiles hit the city.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska shared footage of the children running along the streets of Kyiv on Twitter and wrote: ‘Kyiv. Morning after sleepless night under fire. Anxiety once again…

‘Children running and screaming for shelter to the sounds of explosions. But it should not be like this – anywhere. Fear cannot be turned off – but we do not stop, we act. Ukraine continues to fight.’ 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared his wife’s tweet and added: ‘Glory to all our warriors who defend the Ukrainian sky. Thank you to everyone in the world who helps protect people and children from Russian terror.’

It comes as debris from missiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on a building’s roof, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

The blasts unnerved some locals, already under strain after being awakened by the night attack.

‘After what happened last night, I react sharply to every siren now. I was terrified, and I’m still trembling,’ shared Alina Ksenofontova, a 50-year-old woman who took refuge in the Kyiv subway with her dog Bublik.

Ukraine shot down 11 cruise and ballistic missiles fired in the second of Monday’s attacks on Kyiv, said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Heavy air strikes about six hours earlier had targeted the capital, put five Ukrainian aircraft out of action in the west of the country and caused a fire in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Russia has increased the frequency of air attacks as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive. 

Kyiv metro stations, including the central station, Tetatralna, were packed with people taking shelter although many residents ignored the air raid alarm until they heard loud blasts in city centre. 

Artem Zhyla, a 24-year-old who provides legal services abroad, took his laptop with him and kept working underground.

‘I heard two or three explosions, went to the bathroom, and then I heard five or seven more explosions. That’s when I realised something terrible was happening,’ he said.

Like many others in the capital, he feels exhausted and stressed. However, he has no intentions of giving up and plans to attend his yoga class to recharge.

‘This is certainly not enough to break us,’ he said. 

Russia used Iskander short-range missiles in the morning attack, the spokesman for Ukraine’s air force said on local television.

The missiles were fired from north of Kyiv, Yurii Ihnat said without clarifying if he meant Russian territory. Kyiv lies around 380 kilometers (236 miles) from the Russian border.

During the previous night, air defenses brought down more than 40 targets as Russian forces bombarded Kyiv with a combination of drones and cruise missiles in their 15th nighttime attack on the capital so far this month, said Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.

On Saturday night, Kyiv was subjected to the largest drone attack since the start of Russia’s war. At least one person was killed, local officials said.

Kremlin’s strategy of long-range bombardment has brought many sleepless nights for Ukrainians.

Over the winter, Russian forces aimed their missiles and drones at power plants and other infrastructure. The apparent goal was to weaken Ukraine’s resolve and compel the Ukrainian government to negotiate peace on Moscow’s terms, but Ukrainians swiftly and defiantly repaired the damage.

In recent months, Ukraine has been receiving advanced air defense systems from its Western allies, improving its ability to fend off bombardments by the Kremlin’s forces.

Across the country, the Ukrainian air force said that over Sunday night it shot down 37 out of 40 cruise missiles and 29 out of 35 drones launched by the Kremlin’s forces.

At least three civilians were wounded nationwide in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian presidential office said.

Russian missiles slammed into a military airport In the western Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine, destroying five aircraft and damaging the runway, local Gov. Serhyi Hamaliy said on television.

The strike sparked fires at nearby warehouses storing fuel and military equipment, he added.

Russian shelling and airstrikes also targeted nine localities in the eastern Donetsk region, including the city of Kramatorsk which houses the local Ukrainian army headquarters, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Ukrainian TV.

The attack on Kyiv came on the same day that Ukrainian forces shelled several frontier settlements in the Russian border region of Belgorod just days after anti-Putin rebel groups briefly captured territory there, the local governor said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said two industrial facilities in the border town of Shebekino had been shelled and four employees had been wounded while several settlements were left without electricity.

The governor ordered some 300 children to be evacuated from Shebekino and the border district of Graivoron and sent to summer camps away from the front lines.

Belgorod, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, has repeatedly come under attack from Kyiv‘s forces since the beginning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Today’s strike is the heaviest shelling on the region since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, local media reported.

Gladkov admitted today that ‘several settlements of the Belgorod region are under fire from the armed forces of Ukraine’, adding that two industrial enterprises had been targeted. 

He continued: ‘Shells hit one enterprise, and a production building with paint and varnish liquids caught fire.

‘There are four victims – men, employees of the enterprise, who were delivered to the Central District Hospital with burns of the respiratory tract and carbon monoxide poisoning.

‘One is in intensive care in a serious condition, three are in a state of moderate severity. All necessary medical assistance is provided.’

Other villages including Novaya Tavolzhanka were also hit, Gladkov said.

The Kremlin was left furious last week after native Russian anti-Kremlin fighters carried out a major cross-border raid on a series of border villages in Belgorod, briefly seizing several settlements before withdrawing over the frontier.

Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, but has said that destroying infrastructure is preparation for a planned ground assault.

Putin on Sunday ordered stronger border security to ensure ‘fast’ Russian military and civilian movement into the Ukrainian regions now under Moscow’s control.

But Gladkov today demanded that the Kremlin take more action to defend his region amid the Ukrainian strikes. 

He called on Russian forces to take the extreme measure of annexing neighbouring Kharkiv in Ukraine to save his region.

He said: ‘What can be done to secure our territory, especially the border areas?

‘Kharkiv [in Ukraine] has to be annexed to Belgorod region. 

‘Do you believe in this possibility? This is the best way to solve the problem of shelling in Belgorod region.’

‘We are living in the conditions of what essentially is war,’ Gladkov warned Moscow. 

‘Whether people like it or not, this is happening. The enemy comes in. Before the latest events in Graivoron, five sabotage groups had entered.’

Last week, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) and Freedom of Russia Legion, armed with armoured vehicles, small arms and a pair of tanks, surged over the border from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and took a string of urban settlements to occupy roughly 3-5 miles of Russian soil.

They later launched a pair of drone attacks on FSB and Interior Ministry buildings in Belgorod city on Tuesday, prompting Gladkov to order the evacuation of nine Russian towns and the Kremlin to admit ‘serious cause for concern’. 

By Tuesday afternoon, Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had ‘wiped out’ the rebels, whom they refused to acknowledge as Russian and instead described them as Ukrainian nationalists. 

Ukrainian officials meanwhile retorted they were not involved in the orchestration of the incursion, claiming the attack was carried out by Russian citizens and casting it as homegrown, internal Russian strife. 

Kyiv has been preparing to launch an offensive although its timing and focus have been the subject of months of speculation. 

Ukrainian authorities have said almost nothing except that they need more weapons from Kyiv’s backers.

Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said Monday that in the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut ‘the intensity of the enemy’s offensive has significantly decreased’ as Russian mercenary group Wagner was handing over its positions to Moscow’s regular troops.

‘Our troops are making this process much more difficult for the enemy,’ she said.

‘At the same time, the intensity of enemy artillery shelling has not decreased.’

Ukraine is suspected of shooting down an ‘unstoppable’ Russian hypersonic missile in what would be a major blow to Vladimir Putin.

The air-launched missile was aimed at Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday after a drone strike on the Kremlin – but it is believed to have been downed by Ukraine. 

Ukrainian military experts say the wreckage at the site suggests the downed missile was Russia’s prized Kh-47 Kinzhal – or Dagger – hypersonic missile.

The Kyiv armed forces may have used a US-supplied Patriot system to down the suspected Kinzhal, experts said.

The 24ft-long, one-ton Kinzhal can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, and Russia has boasted that the missile has no match among Western defences. 

If Ukrainian forces did down the Kinzhal, it would be the first time such a missile has been shot down.

Specialist Defense Express website said: ‘One of the photos shows the nose cone, which is as similar as possible to the one used in the Kh-47 Kinzhal missile with a complex shape of sharp diameter transitions.

‘The wreckage shows that it sustained penetration damage, which allows us to estimate the thickness of the material needed to withstand the high temperature during acceleration to hypersonic speeds.

‘It also indicates that the intercept was quite effective, with the warhead destroyed in midair.

‘This explains the powerful explosion heard by Kyiv residents on the night of 4 May.’

The site said: ‘Outdated Soviet air defence systems are not capable of shooting down such a missile…

‘In most cases, defeating such a target is possible only with the help of the Patriot PAC-3 air defence system with a PAC-3 MSE kinetic interceptor.

‘The hole in the wreckage… indicates the possible use of such a missile.’

Russian war sites have strongly disputed the Ukrainian claim as ‘nonsense’.

‘Ukrainian military experts are trying to pass off the image of a water pipe as the wreckage of a rocket,’ said one.

The Kinzhal can be fired from the MiG-31, Tu-160 or Tu-22M3M warplanes, and it has been used by Moscow in the war.

It has a range of 1,250 miles and its conventional version was deployed for the first time against Ukraine in March 2022.

Russian forces had launched a barrage of missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the early hours of Thursday after two drones struck the Kremlin in a strike Russia has blamed on Ukraine and the US.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted – without providing evidence – the US was ‘undoubtedly’ behind the strike that he said was carried out by Ukraine – claims the White House dismissed as ‘lies’.

Around 40 explosive-laden drones with ‘for Moscow’ scrawled on them were fired at cities that were miles away from the front line, with explosions heard in the capital Kyiv and southern cities of Odesa and Zaporizhzhia.

‘Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kyiv, but in Washington,’ a furious Peskov said. ‘Kyiv only does what it is told to do. Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Russia’s claims Ukraine was behind the drone strike on the Kremlin and British security officials believe the attack was a ‘false flag’ operation by Russia to distract Kyiv from its anticipated counter-offensive and rally up support back home.

While Ukraine has demonstrated the capability to launch such attacks on the Kremlin, Kyiv is considered unlikely to risk fracturing international support by targeting the dictator directly. 

A Russian ‘false flag’ attack appeared a more likely explanation, with the explosion intended to generate support for Putin and further Russian attacks on Kyiv, UK officials said last night. 

Russia right this moment boasted its missile strikes have been ‘proper heading in the right direction’ in a sickening Telegram publish made simply hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed a barrage of rockets on Ukrainian houses.

Greater than 20 cruise missiles and two drones have been fired at cities and cities throughout Ukraine that have been miles away from the entrance traces, killing a minimum of 23 civilians together with a mom and her two-year-old daughter as they slept inside their houses.

Households have been blown to items, with many victims buried amongst the rubble of their houses, as Russia’s missiles thundered via the air and smashed into residential buildings. 

5 hours after the primary rocket struck the city of Uman and wreaked havoc there, Russia’s Defence Ministry posted a sinister message that learn ‘proper heading in the right direction’ alongside {a photograph} of a rocket being launched.

The ministry later insisted that its strategic bombers had performed ‘high-precision’ assaults on Ukrainian military reserve models in a single day to stop them from attending to the frontline.

However the screams of those that watched their kinfolk and neighbours blown to items and the distraught firefighters choosing their manner via the rubble present the fact of Putin’s missile blitz.

The missiles started raining down on the central metropolis of Dnipro at 4am this morning, with one placing a home the place Olga Bilash, 31, and her two-year-old daughter have been sleeping, killing them each. 4 others have been wounded.

Harrowing images present their destroyed residence, the place a whole wall is lowered to rubble. Inside, the remaining partitions are blackened from the blast and rubble covers the toddler’s highchair.

Olga’s cousin Tetyana Bilash, 21, stated: ‘I would like all Russians to rot and die, I would like for this nation to by no means exist. I hate them. My world is ruined and empty.’

Within the central city of Uman, households have been woken by the sound of explosions tearing via their houses. No less than two cruise missiles smashed right into a nine-storey constructing, killing a minimum of 17 individuals together with two 10-year-old youngsters and wounding 17 others.

In a haunting scene, survivors, stricken with grief, broke down in tears and grasped at one another for some type of consolation as they watched their neighbours being carried away from the rubble in physique baggage.

Hours after the strike, firefighters have been nonetheless clambering their manner via the particles within the hope of discovering survivors trapped below the rubble.

Kyiv was additionally rocked by explosions within the first assault on the capital in practically two months, with air raid sirens starting at 4am. Ukraine’s air power managed to intercept 11 cruise missiles and two drones launched on the metropolis.

Explosions have been additionally reported after midnight in Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine in addition to in Mykolaiv within the south.

The bombardment was nowhere close to the battle’s sprawling entrance traces or lively fight zones in jap Ukraine, the place a grinding battle of attrition has taken maintain. Moscow has regularly launched long-range missile assaults in the course of the 14-month battle, usually indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.

Survivors of the Uman strikes recounted terrifying moments because the missiles hit when it nonetheless was darkish outdoors.

Halyna, a constructing resident, stated she and her husband have been coated in glass by the blast. They noticed flames outdoors their window and scrambled out, however first Halyna checked whether or not her pal in a neighboring house was OK.

‘I used to be calling, calling her (on the cellphone), however she did not choose up. I even rang the doorbell, however nonetheless no reply,’ she instructed The Related Press. She used the spare keys from her pal’s house and went inside to test on her. She discovered her mendacity lifeless on her house flooring.

Halyna refused to supply her final title out of safety issues.

One other resident Serhii Lubivskyi stated he was woken at 4.30 am by the explosion. He ran to the entrance door however could not open it. His rest room and kitchen have been in tatters, dishes and doorways smashed.

Smoke stuffed the air and he and his spouse went out onto the balcony, the place they stood till firefighters rescued them at 7am. 

‘My flat is on the seventh flooring … We felt the impression, we heard the explosion,’ he stated in faltering speech, struggling to make sense of an assault that turned half of his house block to rubble. 

‘My neighbours are gone, nobody is left … solely the kitchens have been left standing,’ he stated, crying as he took a deep drag from a cigarette. 

‘Russian bastards … worse than animals,’ he stated. ‘They do not care, the extra individuals they kill, the extra they wish to kill, simply because we do not wish to work for them.’ 

One other constructing resident, Olha Turina, stated that cup from the explosion flew all over the place.

Turina, whose husband is combating on the entrance traces, stated certainly one of her kid’s classmates was lacking.

‘I do not know the place they’re, I do not know if they’re alive,’ she stated. ‘I do not know why we’ve to undergo all this. We by no means bothered anybody.’

One of many 14 individuals killed within the assault on Uman was a 75-year-old lady who died from inner bleeding attributable to the shockwave from the blast within the neighbouring nine-storey constructing struck by missiles.

Three physique baggage have been seen outdoors the constructing as smoke continued to billow hours after the assault. 

Troopers, civilians and emergency crews searched via the rubble outdoors for extra victims, whereas residents dragged belongings out of the broken constructing. 

One lady, crying in shock and horror at what she had simply witnessed, was taken away by rescue crews. 

A haunting video reveals a distraught Ukrainian lady with blood on her fingers and face after the assault as she factors out the wreckage of her flat.

She tells how her youngsters had narrowly escaped dying within the terrifying bombardment. 

‘A missile hit our block of flats,’ she stated, exhibiting the harm. ‘We’re all coated in blood. All home windows have been shattered. Youngsters have been sleeping right here.

‘They’re all alive. We’re all coated in blood. I acquired so scared. I hate you, bloody [Russians], I hate you.’

The missiles have been fired from plane working within the Caspian Sea area, in line with Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Total, he stated Ukraine intercepted 21 of 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 sort cruise missiles launched, in addition to the 2 drones.

The assaults got here days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that he and Chinese language chief Xi Jinping held a ‘lengthy and significant’ cellphone name the place Xi stated his authorities will ship a peace envoy to Ukraine and different nations.

However Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that Friday’s bombardment confirmed the Kremlin is not fascinated by a peace deal.

‘Missile strikes killing harmless Ukrainians of their sleep, together with a 2-year-old youngster, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives,’ he tweeted. ‘The way in which to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine.’

In Kyiv, fragments from intercepted missiles or drones broken energy traces and a highway in a single neighborhood. No casualties have been reported.

Ukraine officers stated final week that that they had taken supply of American-made Patriot missiles, offering Kyiv with a long-sought new defend in opposition to Russian airstrikes, however there was no phrase on whether or not the system was used Friday.

Town’s anti-aircraft system was activated, in line with the Kyiv Metropolis Administration. Air raid sirens began at about 4 a.m., and the alert ended about two hours later.

The missile assault was the primary on the capital since March 9. Air defenses have thwarted Russian drone assaults extra not too long ago. 

The assaults come as Ukrainian forces are anticipated to quickly launch an offensive with new navy tools, together with tanks, from its Western allies after Russian forces made little headway in a winter offensive. 

Russian forces have suffered setbacks all through the battle and have been attempting for 10 months to punch their manner into the shattered stays of Bakhmut, as soon as a metropolis of 70,000.

Russia sees Bakhmut as a key stepping stone to different cities in jap Ukraine, now its main navy goal.

The Russian assaults got here as Nato introduced that its allies have delivered greater than 98 per cent of the fight automobiles promised to Ukraine throughout Russia’s invasion and battle, strengthening Kyiv’s capabilities because it contemplates launching a counteroffensive.

Together with greater than 1,550 armoured automobiles, 230 tanks and different tools, Ukraine’s allies have despatched ‘huge quantities of ammunition’ and skilled and outfitted greater than 9 new Ukrainian brigades, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg stated.

Greater than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the brand new brigades. Some accomplice nations, akin to Sweden and Australia, have additionally supplied armoured automobiles.

‘This may put Ukraine in a powerful place to proceed to retake occupied territory,’ Mr Stoltenberg instructed reporters in Brussels.