Russia Pounds Ukraine With Missiles and Drones, Ukrainian Authorities Say

Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least three people, the Ukrainian authorities said, with explosions rocking major cities, including the capital, Kyiv. Energy infrastructure was also targeted in the attacks, officials said.

“The attack of the enemy strike drones continues. Stay in shelters,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in one of a series of Telegram posts issued as different cities were hit.

In addition to Kyiv, the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, and the western city of Lviv were also hit. Air raid alerts sounded in many places. “There are six Tu-22M3 aircraft in the air,” another air force message on social media said, referring to Russian bombers that can launch missiles.

The strikes came a day after a barrage of attacks on the eastern city of Kramatorsk. A member of a Reuters news agency team, a British safety adviser, was killed in the city when a missile struck the hotel where he was staying, Reuters said. Two Reuters journalists were also wounded in the strike.

Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region of Russia on Aug. 6, seeking to shift the dynamics of the war, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had pledged a decisive response. It was not clear whether the attacks on Monday signaled part of that retaliation or whether Moscow was seeking to increase the pace of its military gains this year in the east of the country.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine said that 15 of the country’s 24 regions had been hit in what he called a “massive Russian attack” using cruise missiles, drones and other weapons. “There are wounded and dead,” he said, adding that Russia had also targeted the energy sector.