Russia continued its missile attacks on Ukraine today ahead of a widely expected Ukrainian counterattack, targeting an industrial facility in the southern Mykolaiv region, authorities said.

The governor of Mykolayiv, Vitaly Kim, said in a social media post that a building and land belonging to an unnamed company were damaged overnight when his area was targeted by five Kh-22 cruise missiles.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ikhnat, said this morning on local television that a total of six such missiles were launched against Ukraine overnight, but none hit their target.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, at least five people were injured when an S-300 missile hit a car park in the town of Balakliya, governor Oleh Sinyekhubov said.

Russian forces have stepped up long-range missile strikes on civilian targets and infrastructure in recent days.

Air-raid sirens sounded for several hours overnight and into the early hours today in about two-thirds of Ukraine, from Kiev to areas west of the capital across eastern and southern Ukraine.

Officials in the capital Kyiv and the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk also reported downing a reconnaissance and attack drone in the early hours of the morning, respectively.

The overnight strikes coincided with reports in Ukrainian and Russian media of multiple explosions in Russian-held Crimea.

Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russian law enforcement agencies, reported that Ukraine sent a series of drones over the peninsula and that Russian air defenses shot down at least one of them over the port of Sevastopol.

Reuters could not independently confirm these reports.

Strikes in areas occupied by Russia have intensified in the past two weeks, particularly in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming whether it had any role in these attacks, says the destruction of enemy infrastructure is preparation for a pre-planned ground attack.

Kiev’s military is widely expected to launch a counteroffensive in the coming weeks to retake territory seized by Russia in the east and south.

In the southern city of Kherson, which was liberated by Ukraine last November but has been under constant Russian attacks, six people were killed in the past 24 hours in various strikes, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.