RUSSIA launched fresh waves of missile attacks across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 20 people in a strike on an apartment block in the eastern city of Dnipro.
A number of other cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, were also hit.
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Much of Ukraine is now under an emergency blackout after missiles hit power infrastructure in several cities.
Earlier, the UK said it would send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help the country’s defence.
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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Challengers, the British army’s main battle tank, would help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”.
Russia responded by saying that providing more weapons to Ukraine would lead to intensified Russian operations and more civilian casualties.
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Later on Saturday – a day when Ukrainians celebrate the Old (or Orthodox) New Year – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian attacks on civilian targets could be stopped only if Ukraine’s Western partners supplied necessary weapons.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons which are in the depots of our partners and which our soldiers are waiting for so much,” he said in his nightly video address, adding that his forces shot down more than 20 out of 30 Russian missiles fired at Ukraine.
