Fresh Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 2 ahead of Nato talks

KYIV: Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and wounded several more, as Moscow sustained its attacks ahead of a meeting between US president Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at a Nato summit.

A first large blast in Kyiv was heard even before the city’s air alert sirens sounded, followed by a barrage of four more, AFP journalists in the city said.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said warehouses were on fire in one district because of a missile strike, and in another a “non-residential building” was ablaze.

The state emergency service later said two people in the capital were wounded during the strikes.

A mother and daughter were killed, and two more wounded, in the southern region of Mykolaiv when Russian forces attacked with guided aerial bombs, regional military head Vitaliy Kim said.

Four people were wounded in Dnipropetrovsk after Russia attacked with drones and artillery, according to the head of the eastern region’s military administration.

Another two were wounded in a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, according to the military chief there.

The mayor of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, said two people had been wounded in another strike.

In Russia, the governor of Saratov region said one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack.

The Russian onslaught came after strikes, including multiple missile hits on Kyiv, killed 30 people in Ukraine on Monday.

Trump and Zelensky are scheduled to meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Zelensky has urged Ukraine’s backers to step up help for the country’s air defences as it struggles with shortages of crucial interceptors to shoot down Russian missiles.

Despite being able to tackle the swarms of Russian drones targeting the country, Ukraine is having difficulties tackling the Kremlin’s new strategy of raining ballistic missiles down on Kyiv as its air defences run low.