Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early this morning, killing at least four civilians and hitting residential areas and commercial sites in its latest combined air attack, Ukrainian authorities said.
Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, local officials reported, where critical infrastructure had also been struck.
In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was killed and a shopping centre and scores of private homes and apartment buildings damaged after nine Russian missiles hit the south central city, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor.
"The mad enemy once again struck civilians," regional governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Directed missiles at people."
Russia said it hit military-industrial targets in Ukraine from sea and air.
"This morning, a multiple attack was carried out with high-precision, long-range, sea and air-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, on facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," the defence ministry said in a daily dispatch.
Ukraine said its air defences had destroyed 18 out of 51missiles, a much lower shoot-down rate than normal which Kyiv attributed to the large number of ballistic missiles fired by Russia.
They are more difficult to intercept, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on Ukrainian television.
All eight drones launched by Russia were also shot down.
The strikes came amid a cold snap sweeping Ukraine, with Mr Vilkul also reporting that 15,000 residents were without power and that local trams were not running.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, an industrial site and educational facility were damaged after at least four missile strikes, Governor Oleh Synehubov said.
A 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv, he added.
Five people were also wounded in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where governor Yuriy Malashko said residential areas had been struck.
"Not a single military target," he wrote on Telegram.
Russia in recent weeks has resumed a campaign of regular air strikes on Ukrainian population centres far behind the lines of its nearly two-year-old full-scale invasion.
'They are trying to destroy us'
The attacks come a day after Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa paid a surprise visit to Kyiv, where she said Tokyo was "determined" to keep supporting Ukraine.
Ms Kamikawa, the first high-level foreign official to visit Kyiv this year, announced new deliveries of defence equipment and discussed Tokyo's plans to host a February conference to promote Ukraine's economic reconstruction.
"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," she told a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba held in a bomb shelter as an air raid siren rang out.
"I once again strongly condemn Russia's missile and drone attacks, particularly on New Year's Day," said Ms Kamikawa.
She said Tokyo would "allocate" $37 million (€33.7m) to provide Ukraine with a drone detection system.
It will also supply five generators to help Ukraine "survive" another winter.
Mr Kuleba said Kyiv was thankful for Japan's decision last year to provide Ukraine with F-16s jets, but said the country also needed air defence systems.
"Every day, Ukrainian cities are destroyed by Russian missiles and drones. They cannot capture us, so they are trying to destroy us," he said.
Russia evacuates hundreds from border city
Russia said it had moved some 300 people from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian shelling, the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since the conflict began.
The unprecedented announcement follows waves of deadly strikes by Kyiv's forces on Belgorod, which lies less than 32 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
Some 300 residents who decided to leave are now being housed in temporary accommodation in the towns of Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district, further from the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
"Over the past 24 hours we received 1,300 requests to send Belgorod children to school camps away from the city in other regions," he added.
The Kremlin has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front, but recent strikes on Belgorod have brought the Ukraine conflict closer to home for Russians.
On 30 December, Ukrainian shelling of the city killed 25 people, prompting schools to shut for an extended period.
Moscow vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine in response to the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the start of the war.
