Russia has fired five missiles on Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least three people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facility, the regional governor said.
"What marks today's strikes: first, there were two missile strikes, and then, about 40 minutes later, there were other strikes at the same place - just as rescuers, police started working," Ivan Fedorov said on national TV.
There were 13 people wounded in the attack, including a nine-year-old boy, and four were hospitalised in grave condition.
Among the wounded, in the city near the frontline in the war with Russian forces, were two journalists.
At least three apartment blocks, 10 private houses, shops and an unidentified industrial facility were damaged, he added.
Images from the site, shared by Mr Fedorov and the interior ministry, captured shattered windows of a cafe and a small shop.
Ukraine's air force issued a ballistic missile raid alert for the region, part of which is occupied by Russia.
Moscow has recently stepped-up usage of ballistic missiles that are harder to intercept.
Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region was also under intense air attack in the afternoon, according to local media and regional officials.
There was no immediate reports of casualties.
Earlier, Russian officials accused Ukraine of attacking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is located southwest of the city of Zaporizhzhia and is occupied by Russian troops.
The Russian state-run RIA news agency quoted the facility press service as saying Ukrainian military drones attacked the power plant but caused no damage to its critical infrastructure.
Reuters could not independently verify the alleged incident.
In the past, both sides in the two-year-old conflict have accused each other of shelling the plant, none of whose six reactors are operating.
Intensified attacks
Ukraine has warned that a key frontline town was coming under "constant fire" from advancing Russian troops as Moscow said it had captured another small village.
Russia's advances on the battlefield came as Ukraine said it had destroyed at least six military planes at a Russian airbase in one of its largest overnight drone attacks in weeks.
Russian forces are on the offensive owing to their advantage in manpower and arms, with the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region appearing to be their next major target.
"The town has become even more dangerous," the head of the Chasiv Yar military administration, Sergiy Chaus, told AFP during an interview in the nearby city of Kramatorsk.
"If before there were moments when you could hear silence in the town, now there is no silence... There is constant fire," he said.
Both Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers with links to the armed forces said that Russian troops had reached the outskirts of the town.
Mr Chaus declined to comment on those reports.
He said there were around 770 people still living there.
"There is not a single building left intact," he added.
Chasiv Yar is an important logistics hub for Kyiv's forces and sits a few kilometres west of Bakhmut, which was destroyed by months of artillery fire before it was captured by Russia last May.
Russia has recently secured its first territorial gains since seizing Bakhmut and is now trying to press onwards against Ukrainian units hobbled by delays in the supply of vital Western military aid.
Further to the south, Russia's military today claimed to have captured the small village of Vodiane, on the outskirts of Donetsk city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that his forces had "managed to stabilise our positions" and had halted Russian advances, despite a "shortage of shells and a significant slowdown in supplies".
With its troops on the defensive, Kyiv has stepped up its aerial attacks on Russian territory, targeting both military sites and energy facilities in an attempt to knock out Russia's fuel and equipment supplies for its invasion.
Kyiv fired more than 50 drones at Russian territory overnight, Russia's defence ministry said, one of its largest attacks in weeks.
A security source in Kyiv told AFP that a drone strike on the Morozovsk air base in Russia's southern Rostov region had destroyed at least six Russian planes and "another eight were heavily damaged".
"This is an important special operation that will significantly reduce the combat potential of the Russians," the source said.
There was no immediate response from Moscow and AFP was unable to verify the claims.
Russia said 44 of the 53 drones Kyiv fired overnight targeted the southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine and is the location of several military sites, including the command headquarters for the invasion of Ukraine.
Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said that investigators were injured while inspecting a drone that had been downed near the air base.
"In the Morozovsk district, not far from the airfield, an explosive device in one of the downed drones detonated around noon, injuring eight people according to preliminary data," he said in a post on Telegram.
He said earlier that the attack inflicted only "insignificant damage" to a power station and blew out windows in an apartment building.
Russia rarely comments on Ukrainian claims of successful strikes.
'Completely destroyed'
Both sides also reported shelling and injuries in frontline towns and villages.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) humanitarian organisation said a 3:00am Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian-held town of Pokrovsk had "completely destroyed" its office in the town.
In a post on X, MSF said it "condemns this attack on the office, which supports its emergency medical humanitarian assistance".
We condemn this attack on our office, which supports emergency medical humanitarian assistance to people in the Donetsk region. We call for the protection of facilities, civilians, humanitarian aid workers, and healthcare... pic.twitter.com/9om8zapLht
— MSF International (@MSF) April 5, 2024
Ukrainian police said five civilians were wounded in the strike.
Other Ukrainian drone attacks in the early hours of this morning targeted Russia's Belgorod and Kursk border regions, as well as Saratov and Krasnodar.
In Saratov, the governor said a drone had targeted Engels, a city around 500km from the border.
Engels is home to a major Russian air base that has previously been hit.
Ukraine's air force meanwhile said Russia launched five missiles and 13 drones at its territory overnight.
Kyiv said it downed the 13 drones but did not say anything about the missiles, which targeted the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Russia's defence ministry said that a recent wave of attacks against Ukraine was "retribution" for Kyiv's attempts to hit its own energy facilities.
Transnistria attack
Meanwhile, pro-Russian separatists in Moldova have claimed that an explosive drone hit a military base, without causing injuries or major damage, three weeks after an allegedly similar incident.
"Today at 14:35 GMT, a kamikaze drone attacked a military base of the ministry of defence of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic in the district of Rybnitsa, six kilometres from the Ukraine border," the ministry for state security in the self-declared breakaway region said in a communique.
"The target was a radar station that suffered minor damage. A group of investigators is on-site," it added, without directly blaming Ukraine.
Transnistria, a thin swathe of land between Moldova and Ukraine, broke away from Moldova in 1992 after a brief conflict.
Russia still has 1,500 soldiers based there, according to official figures, which it said are part of a peace-keeping mission.
Russia has since the 1990s supported the breakaway region, which is largely Russian speaking, unlike the rest of Moldova where Romanian is the main language.
Moscow frequently accuses Moldova and Ukraine of planning attacks on Transnistria, whose leaders in February asked for protection against what they said was "rising pressure" from Moldova.
Transnistria borders the Ukrainian region of Odesa, which Russian forces failed to occupy in the early months of their offensive in Ukraine.
