Ukraine launches big strikes on Russian cities

"The enemy has organised a massive combined strike on the territory of the Russian regions," the Two Majors war blogger said.

Roman Busargin, governor of the Saratov region about 720 km southeast of Moscow, said the cities of Saratov and Engels, on opposite banks of the Volga River, had been subjected to a mass drone attack and there was damage to two industrial sites. Schools had shifted to remote learning, he said.

Ukraine attacked the same region last week and claimed to have struck an oil depot serving an airbase for Russian nuclear bomber planes, causing a huge fire that took five days to put out.

The independent Astra news outlet reported a fire at an industrial site in the city of Kazan, east of Moscow, as a result of a drone attack.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region in western Russia, said Ukraine had launched a major missile attack but did not say which missiles had been used.

Flight restrictions were imposed at airports in Kazan, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk and Nizhnekamsk, Russia's aviation watchdog said.

Nizhnekamsk, in Russia's republic of Tatarstan, is home to the major Taneco refinery. Shot said attack sirens were sounded at the refinery. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report.

There was no immediate comment from Russia's defence ministry. Reuters could not confirm the use of US-supplied ATACMS missiles, as reported by Shot.

Ukraine first fired ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia on November 21 last year, prompting Moscow to respond by launching a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as 'Oreshnik', or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine.

The Kremlin has said Russia will retaliate, including potentially with more Oreshnik launches, every time Ukraine strikes it with those weapons.

President Vladimir Putin said in November that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine for the first time to launch their missiles deep inside Russia.

President-elect Donald Trump has pushed for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war quickly, leaving Washington's long-term support for Ukraine in question.

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. 

with DPA