President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that millions of Ukrainians have no electricity as fresh Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine and crippled the country's energy infrastructure.
"Currently, more than 10 million Ukrainians are without electricity," he said, adding that the regions of Odessa, Vinnytsia, Sumy and Kyiv were most affected.
"We are doing everything to normalise the supply," Mr Zelensky added.
Ukraine has faced strikes against its power grid following battlefield victories against Russia, the latest being Moscow's retreat from the southern city of Kherson.
AFP journalists in several Ukraine cities said the latest strikes coincided with the first snow this season, after officials in Kyiv warned of "difficult" days ahead.
Damage to Ukraine's electricity infrastructure has been so extensive that authorities have been imposing power cuts to relieve the grid.
"Two cruise missiles were shot down over Kyiv. Information about any casualties and damage is being clarified," Kyiv regional officials announced, after authorities in the central city of Dnipro and the Black Sea hub of Odesa also reported Russian strikes.
Targets included the huge Pivdenmash missile factory in Dnipro, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
"Missiles are flying over Kyiv right now. Now they are bombing our gas production (facilities), they are bombing our enterprises in Dnipro and Pivdenmash," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted him as telling a conference.
It was not immediately clear which gas production facilities he was referring to.
Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks, launching some of the heaviest waves of missile strikes since invading Ukraine on 24 February.
Ukraine has said that its air defences have knocked out many of the missiles and drones fired in the last few weeks.
There was no immediate word of any deaths in the new wave of air strikes.
"This morning Russia launched another missile barrage at Ukraine's critical infrastructure," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said.
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to deprive millions of people of electricity and heating, amid freezing temperatures. Send Ukraine more air and missile defence systems to avert this tragedy. Delays cost lives."
Meanwhile, fighting was heavy in the eastern Donetsk region including in the towns of Pavlivka, Vuhledar, Maryianka and Bakhmut, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in an online video.
Ukrainian forces had repelled attacks on the Donetsk towns of Avdiivka and Bilohorivka, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhadnov said in comments posted on YouTube.
with signs of torture, Ukraine's interior minister said
Moscow's forces retreated from the southern city of Kherson last week after a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
It was the only regional capital Russia had captured since its 24 February invasion, and the pullback was the third major Russian retreat of the war.
"These (Russian) troops now have in part redirected from Kherson region and ... will be allocated to the 'liberation' of Donetsk and Luhansk" in the eastern industrial region known as the Donbas, Mr Arestovych said.
"The Kherson operation is turning into a regrouping. They are starting to redeploy in Donetsk," Mr Zhdanov said.
Mr Arestovych said redeployed Russian forces have also gone on the attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and may be planning to launch another offensive in Kharkiv in the north, where they were pushed back by Ukraine earlier in the conflict.
The top US general, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, played down chances of Ukraine scoring any outright military victory in the near term, cautioning that Russia still had significant combat power inside Ukraine despite a string of setbacks.
As the fighting intensified elsewhere,investigators in the recently liberated Kherson region uncovered 63 bodies with signs of torture after Russian forces left the area, Ukraine's interior minister was quoted as saying early today.
Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky as telling national television that "the search has only just started so many more dungeons and burial places will be uncovered".
Seeking to restore power
Following the latest wave of missile attacks targeting power infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late last night that technicians had worked nonstop to restore electricity to households.
"We are talking about millions of customers. We are doing everything we can to bring back power. Both generation and supply," Mr Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan thanked the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine for extending a grain that has allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume.
The export of more than 11 million tonnes of grains in the last four months has shown the deal's importance for global food security, he said on Twitter.
The grain export deal, brokered by Turkey and the UN, was due to expire on 19 November but was extended by 120 days today.
Russia 'ultimately responsible' for Poland blast - Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russia bore responsibility for a deadly blast in Poland, where an initial probe pointed to Ukrainian air defences.
Addressing reporters at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok, Mr Blinken said that he had spoken again with his Ukrainian counterpart on the probe but added that whatever its final conclusion, "we already know the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident – Russia".
"What we are seeing every single day now is Russia raining missiles down on Ukraine, seeking to destroy its critical infrastructure, targeting the ability that Ukraine has to keep the lights on, to keep the heat going, to allow the country simply to live and move forward," he said.
"Ukraine has the right to defend itself and we are committed to supporting Ukraine."
Mr Blinken said that the United States has "seen nothing so far that contradicts" Poland's preliminary assessment that Ukrainian air defences were to blame for the border blast.
He added that the United States would "continue to assess and share new information" on the incident with Ukraine.
