Russia on Thursday launched its biggest missile attack in weeks on Kyiv and across Ukraine, wounding at least 18 people. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, said Russia had fired 43 cruise missiles at targets overnight and that Ukrainian air defences shot down 36 of them.

Russia on Thursday launched its biggest missile attack in weeks on Kyiv and across Ukraine, wounding at least 18 people, damaging energy facilities and causing power cuts, Ukrainian authorities said.

Partial power cuts were reported in five Ukrainian regions in the west, centre and east, bringing back memories of a Russian air campaign on critical infrastructure last winter that caused sweeping outages for Ukrainian civilians.

"Due to the consequences of the first enemy attack in six months, there is damage to energy facilities in the western and central regions," grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement on Telegram messenger.

"There were partial blackouts in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions," it said.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, said Russia had fired 43 cruise missiles at targets overnight and that Ukrainian air defences shot down 36 of them.

"The missiles were launched in several waves. They entered Ukraine's air space from several directions, constantly changing their route," he said on Telegram.

Loud blasts rocked Kyiv and the surrounding region as dawn was breaking, Reuters witnesses said. Authorities reported sending rescue teams to several locations in the capital.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said seven people, including girl aged nine, were injured in the capital. Missile debris fell in the city centre and an infrastructure facility and several non-residential buildings were damaged, causing a fire, he said.