'Massive' Russian strikes kill at least 18 across Ukraine

MOSCOW - Russia launched a massive air attack over Ukraine on Friday, killing at least 18 people and wounding over a hundred across the country. 

READ: Two Russians get heavy prison terms for poetry against Ukraine campaign

Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, said Ukrainian officials.

The attacks -- which also saw a Russian missile passing through Polish airspace -- triggered international condemnation and calls for military support to Ukraine, which has been fighting off invading Russian troops for almost two years.

"Today Russia hit us with almost everything it has in its arsenal," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine's military estimated that Russia had fired 158 missiles and drones on Ukraine and 114 of them had been destroyed.

Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told AFP that this was a "record number" of missiles and "the most massive missile attack" of the war, excluding the early days of constant bombardment.

Russia tried to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences across most major cities, launching a wave of Shahed attack drones followed by missiles of numerous types fired from planes and from Russian-controlled territory.

The police reported "18 civilians killed, 132 wounded" in regions both close and far from the front -- a toll that was expected to rise.

Russia's army said it had "carried out 50 group strikes and one massive strike" on military facilities in Ukraine over the past week, adding that "all targets were hit."

- 'Stop this terror' -

Polish authorities reported that a Russian missile passed through their airspace, entering from and then back into Ukraine.

"Everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace... It also left," said General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces.

After speaking to Polish President Andrzej Duda, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance "stands in solidarity" with Poland, adding: "NATO remains vigilant".

In the face of sustained Russian assaults, Ukraine is urging Western allies to maintain military support.

Ukraine presidential aide Andriy Yermak said Kyiv needed "more support and strength to stop this terror." 

The US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said the strikes showed "Ukraine needs funding now", after the United States released its final package of weaponry under existing agreements, which have not yet been renewed by Congress.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declaring "We must continue to stand with Ukraine -- for as long as it takes".

Shortly afterwards, Britain announced it would be delivering hundreds more air defence missiles to Ukraine.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described it as "yet another cowardly and indiscriminate" attack on civilians.

- Maternity ward 'severely damaged' -

The strikes targeted at least six Ukrainian regions including Kharkiv in the northeast, Lviv in the west, Dnipro in the east and Odesa in the south.

In the capital Kyiv seven people were killed, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, with damage to the building of Lukyanivska metro station located near the Artyom arms factory that Russia said it targeted early in the war.

Work was still ongoing to rescue people stuck under the rubble of the warehouse in the Shevchenko district in the afternoon, according to the city administration.

AFP journalists in Kyiv earlier saw firefighters wearing oxygen masks tackling a fire a 3,000 square metres (32,300 square feet) warehouse in the northern Podil district.

Damage to civilian facilities was also reported in other parts of the country.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv faced around 20 strikes, killing three employees at a civilian enterprise and wounding 11, governor said Oleg Synegubov.

In Dnipro in southern Ukraine, the health ministry said a maternity hospital had been "severely damaged" but the staff and patients had managed to shelter in time.

Six were killed and 28 wounded said Sergiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where a shopping mall, private houses and administrative buildings were hit.

Lysak said there were 12 women in labour at the maternity hospital and four newborns when it was struck.

In Zaporizhzhia, on the shores on the Dnipro river, governor Yuriy Malashko reported seven dead and 13 wounded.

In the Odesa region, which has seen renewed attacks since the summer, four people were killed. 

Strikes over Lviv in the West of Ukraine are much more rare, but the region was not spared on Friday.

One person was killed and 15 wounded as high-rise blocks of flats and two schools were damaged, the interior ministry said. 

By Anna Malpas With Florent Vergnes