At least five people were killed when Russian drones and missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.
The explosions early Wednesday morning left 39 more people injured, regional governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Officials said shops, schools and hospitals were damaged by the strike.
Mr Lisak described the attack as “vicious”. Footage shared on social media showed smoke and flames billowing from the building after the blast.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack and renewed his appeal to Western allies to provide the Ukrainian government with additional air defense systems.
“There are only two things that can stop this Russian terror: modern air defense systems and the long-range capabilities of our weapons,” he wrote on social media.
Dnipro, a city with a pre-war population of about a million, has been a target of Russian attacks since the war began two years ago. Last year, a Russian missile struck a residential apartment building in the city, killing 40 people.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down six drones and five of the seven missiles that targeted the city early Wednesday morning.
But photos posted by Mr. Lisak after the bombing show buildings in the city center torn apart, with broken glass scattered on the ground.
“There was such a strong explosion that the wave hit me and I fell down,” elderly witness Georgii, who had a bandage around his nose and blood on his face, told Reuters.
Among the injured was a 14-year-old girl, Lysak said. He added that two others were being treated in hospital in serious condition.
The head of the local council, Mykola Lukashuk, condemned what he called an act of “cynical terrorism” by Russian forces. City officials declared an official day of mourning.
Elsewhere, two civilians were killed in overnight airstrikes in eastern Ukraine, officials in Donetsk and Luhansk said.
Russia has stepped up its airstrikes in Ukraine in recent months. Moscow denies targeting civilian infrastructure, but the UN human rights watchdog said May was the month with the highest number of civilian casualties in nearly a year.
President Zelensky has made increasingly urgent calls for new air defense systems, urging Western allies to ignore the threat that Russia’s actions could escalate tensions.
On Tuesday he met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who just took over the rotating presidency of the European Union Council.
Mr Orban has long been one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies in Europe and has frequently criticized the EU’s aid package for Ukraine. In a tense meeting in Kiev, the men’s body language was not warm, with Mr Orban urging Mr Zelensky to seek a ceasefire and speed up peace talks.
Elsewhere, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday it had captured key ground in the hilltop settlement of Chasiv Yar, a small town in eastern Ukraine that has been the center of fierce fighting for months.
The town, which has been devastated by relentless shelling, is seen as a potential staging area for Russian forces advancing toward the rest of Ukraine-held territory in the Donetsk region.
Kiwoo has yet to reveal its position on these claims.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military intelligence said they were behind a fire that broke out on a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea in April.
GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters the agency targeted the Serpukhov missile ship along with the Free Russian Corps, a pro-Khiu group.
“As a result of the sabotage, (we) destroyed the ship from the inside and completely destroyed its means of communication and automation,” the Legion said on its Telegram account.
