Russia Ukraine war latest news: Putin launches fresh strikes on Kyiv as explosions rock Ukrainian cities

Air raid alerts were sounded for all of Ukraine in the early hours today and the military warned of possible Russian missile strikes in a wide arc extending from Kyiv to central regions and the south.

Even an hour after the warnings were issued, the residents in Kyiv were asked to remain in shelters by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Telegram channel. Warnings were issued for a range of other regions, including Zhytomyr west of the capital and Kirovohrad, Cherkassy and Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine.

People in Kyiv reported hearing anti-aircraft units in action. There were also reports of explosions in other major cities, but it was uncertain whether these were from missile impacts or anti-aircraft activity.

The warnings also extended north of Kyiv and to the south and west to Vinnystia, Khmelnitskyi and Chernivtsi regions.

Other Telegram channels warned of possible strikes in the central region of Poltava and further south in Mykolaiv region.

Ukrainian military spokesperson has said there is no sign of Russian forces facing shortage of ammunition, contradicting statements by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group spearheading the Bakhmut assault.

“The enemy is seeking to take over the city at will, striking with all systems and calibres,” spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi said.

“They are moving new units there (to Bakhmut), primarily paratroopers, in an attempt to achieve some kind of intermediate success.”

A Hungarian official says it would be difficult for Hungary to support the EU’s next round of sanctions against Russia amid the war due to Ukraine’s blacklisting of a Hungarian bank.

The Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) included Hungarian Bank OTP on its list of “international sponsors of war”.

Péter Szijjártó Hungarian foreign minister, said “that as long as OTP stays on this list, it will be very difficult for us to even enter into negotiations on the eleventh sanctions package,” and “it will be very difficult for us to negotiate economic restrictions that require additional sacrifices.”

The bank accounts at Finland’s embassy and consulate in Russia have been frozen, Finland’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish foreign minister, said: “The accounts of Finnish embassies have been frozen in Russia and at the moment they cannot be used.”

Finland, which has a border with Russia, joined Nato on 4 April this year in a policy shift triggered by the war in Ukraine and the threats from Russia.

Haavisto reported that Finland sent a message to Russia on 4 May requesting answers and an explanation as to why the accounts are frozen but they have not yet responded.

Satellite images of Bakhmut show the damage caused by recent attacks and air strikes.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, Ukraine’s military spokesperson claimed on TV on Wednesday that Ukraine has made new advances in the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Speaking of the heavy fighting in the areas, Reuters quotes Cherevatyi as saying: “We are successfully conducting a defensive operation, counterattacking and during this day our units have penetrated up to 500 metres in some parts of the Bakhmut front.”

He continued: “The enemy is seeking to take over the city at will, striking with all systems and calibres. There can be no talk of any kind of shell hunger. They are moving new units there, primarily paratroopers, in an attempt to achieve some kind of intermediate success.”

One of Russia’s closest allies, Belarus, has partially gained control back over its border with Russia.

Sergei Aleinik, Belarusian foreign minister, shared the news on Wednesday.

It’s the first time in 28 years that there has been checks at this border, which spans 770 miles, according to AP.

The aim of border controls was to avoid third-country nationals from entering Belarus.

It comes before the implementation of an intergovernmental agreement on the mutual recognition of visas.

Human rights activists, however, believe these controls will be targeted at Russian men trying to avoid having to be mobilized into the army.

Speaking of the checks at the border, Aleinik said: “It’s not really control, it’s more like monitoring the situation on the border.”

Ukraine denied that a Russian hypersonic missile had destroyed a US-made Patriot missile defence system during an air strike on Kyiv.

Russia’s defence ministry made the assertion that it had destroyed the $1.1bn surface-to-airmissile system on Tuesday after an overnight air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Two US officials later said a Patriot system had probably suffered damage but that it did not appear to have been destroyed.

“I want to say: do not worry about the fate of the Patriot,” Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television.

He ruled out the possibility of a Russian “Kinzhal” missile knocking out a Patriot system.

“Destroying the system with some kind of ‘Kinzhal’, it’s impossible. Everything that they say there, it can remain in their propaganda archive,” he said.

An attack by Russian troops on the village of Zelenivka in Ukraine’s southern Kherson Oblast killed a 5-year-old boy and two men, according to a report by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

Another man and a child were injured when a Russian projectile hit an area near a local shop.