Putin’s forces strike six cities as Crimea air base damaged in attack – live

A massive Russian attack on Ukraine hits six cities has killed two and injured five.

Where have the strikes hit?

In the southern city of Kherson a strike on a residential building killed two people and injuted five said regional governor Oleksand Prokudin.

Seven people were injured in Kyiv, including a nine-year-old girl, after the strike targered residential and commercial buildings, mayor Vitalii Klitschko said.

At least six strikes hit the Slobidskyi district of Kharkiv, damaging civilian infrastructure and hospitalising two, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Seven were injured and at least one person was rescued from under rubble in Cherkasy in central Ukraine, according to Ihor Klymenko the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine.

Missiles hit an industrial zone in the region of Lviv, damaging buildings and starting a fire, but there have been no reports of casualties, Mr Klymenko added.

Regional governor Vitalii Koval reported strikes in the city of Rivne in the northwest region of the same name, but no further details have been reported.

Ukraine’s SBU security service and navy struck the Saky air base in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, inflicting “serious damage”, a Ukrainian intelligence source claimed on Thursday.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it had destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones over Crimea and the Black Sea, and gave no details on casualties or damage.

“Strikes by the Security Service and the Navy hit the target and caused serious damage to the occupiers’ equipment,” the source claimed, describing an operation that the source said used first drones and then Neptune cruise missiles.

The source added that at least 12 combat aircraft and man-portable air-defense system were located at the base in western Crimea and that the base was also used as a training base for drone operators.

Here are some images from Kyiv, Ukraine, which show damage inflicted by Russian airstrikes this morning.

Ukraine’s armoured vehicles appear to have broken through Russia’s main defensive line on the southern front.

Footage suggests Marder and Stryker vehicles have pushed through the Surovikin Line west of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia.

More than 300 of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have been killed and wounded in a span of 24 hours in Zaporizhzhia’s oblast, Ukraine’s armed forces said in a battlefield update on Wednesday.

Ukrainian commander general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said the Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions 18 times with 830 attacks, one rocket and 23 air strikes in the past day. In retaliation, the artillery units under him launched 1,232 fire missions during the day.

Ukraine has fired at least 19 “lethal” drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula, and three more over other bordering regions of Russia, the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday.

The Russian anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed over a dozen drones in the region, the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

“In the night from 20 to 21 September, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to commit a terrorist attack with lethal drones on sites in the Russian Federation was intercepted,” the ministry said.

United States President Joe Biden is looking forward to meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in Washington on Thursday and getting a “battlefield perspective” on Ukraine’s counter-offensive, says White House spokesperson John Kirby.

Kirby told reporters that the White House had encouraged Zelensky to meet with US lawmakers to discuss his ongoing military needs.

He said the possibility of providing Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles remained “on the table,” but no decision had yet been made.

This is the Ukrainian president’s second visit to the US since Russia’s invasion and it comes at a time Congress is mulling Mr Biden’s request to assist Ukraine with as much as $24bn (£19bn) in military and humanitarian aid.

More on what to expect from the meeting here:

“Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the UN when it comes to the defence of the sovereign border of nations” – said Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as he made an impassioned call for reform of the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday.

The president claims the UN is incapable of preventing aggressors like Vladimir Putin invading other countries, and he called for action with a plea to remove Russia’s veto power on the Security Council.

The 15-member council has met dozens of times since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, but it has been unable to take any action because Moscow holds a veto.

More on Zelensky’s address here:

All eyes were on the potential of a face-off between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov across the UN Security Council’s horse-shaped table.

But it was a near-miss as Zelensky left before Lavrov arrived.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments on a ban of grain imports by Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have angered the government in Warsaw.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv was working to preserve land routes for grain exports, but added that the “political theatre” around grain imports was only helping Moscow.

Poland’s foreign ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski had conveyed the Polish side’s strong protest against the statement, alleging that some EU countries feigned solidarity while indirectly supporting Russia.

More on Hungary, Poland and Slovakia banning the grain imports here: