Ukrainian military and civilian authorities announced in the early hours of the morning that air defenses had been activated for another night in the capital Kiev and other cities in the country, as intensive Russian airstrikes continued in recent days.

Sirens sounded through the night in Kiev and other municipalities. Military officials reported explosions in Lviv and Rivne (west), as well as Kherson (south).

“The anti-aircraft defense operates in the airspace of Kyiv. Stay in the shelters until the alarm is over!”, Serhii Popko, the head of the military administration of the capital, emphasized via Telegram. His counterpart in the Krevni Ri (south) district, Oleksandr Vilkul, made a similar recommendation, speaking of “explosions”.

There are no reports of civilian casualties at this stage. Alerts began to be lifted a few hours after they were announced in Kiev, in central and southern regions; they remained in effect in eastern and western regions.

Earlier, the Ukrainian military said some targets were downed, without giving further details.

On the other hand, the Russian state news agency TASS reported that the city of Donetsk, which is controlled by pro-Russians, was bombarded with rockets. He gave no information on casualties or damage.

The night before, Kiev and other cities were targeted by a wave of missile strikes by Russian forces. The Ukrainian military assured that it had shot down almost all of the Russian missiles, while the Russian Defense Ministry, on the other hand, said that “all” targets were hit and “destroyed”.

The military command in Kiev has spoken of Russian attacks “unprecedented” in terms of their “power, intensity and diversity” this month.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan, Britain, the EU and the US announced new economic sanctions against Russia, particularly in the diamond sector, with the aim of curtailing Moscow’s ability to finance the war.