Two children among eight dead in Russian strikes on Ukraine, officials say

Eight people, including two children, have died during a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine, according to local officials.

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Wednesday that Russia had been preparing for a "massive attack", urging people to heed air raid alerts.

In the early hours of Thursday, the Ukrainian military reported multiple missile and drone strikes around the country.

The attacks come after Zelensky met US President Donald Trump in Washington DC this week to urge the US to grant Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot interceptor missiles.

Two girls, aged 5 and 12, were among the six killed in a village near the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile hit a private house, a local official said.

Eight more people were injured, including two children, the official added, noting that the number of casualties could rise.

In Kyiv, one person died and fires broke out in three non-residential buildings overnight, the capital's mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

The mayor of Poltava also reported a death on Telegram, which came after he said a Nova Poshta postal terminal had been attacked.

Explosions were also heard in Lviv, its mayor Andriy Sadovyi said, reporting that residential buildings had been damaged.

Multiple people were injured with some trapped under a building, he added, saying residents were helping rescuers to clear the rubble.

Several other cities were under attack, with missiles reaching western Ukraine, according to BBC Ukraine.

In response, Poland mobilised its military aircraft as a "preventative measure", its armed forces wrote on X.

Ukraine had been expecting the Russian offensive, with Zelensky warning that "there is a high probability that the attack will occur tonight".

Meanwhile in Russia, a regional official reported an overnight attack on the warehouse of a retailer in the city of Penza.

One person was injured at a Wildberries facility, Regional Governor Oleg Melnichenko posted on Telegram.

Wildberries is often described as "Russia's Amazon" and its sites have been the target of recent Ukrainian attacks.

The military action follows repeated calls by Ukraine's president to bolster Kyiv's anti-ballistic missile defences.

"The protection of people's lives depends directly on their willingness, or lack of willingness, to provide air defence missiles," he wrote on X on Wednesday.

The Patriot is one of the few air defence systems able to intercept ballistic missiles, which Russia has increasingly used to bombard Ukrainian cities.