Russia kills Ukrainian civilians as anniversary of invasion approaches

 Russia pounded Kyiv with a combined missile and drone attack overnight before the fourth anniversary on Tuesday of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

One man was killed and eight people were pulled from under the rubble after the ballistic missile strike, which set a multi-storey residential building ablaze.

Russia also targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing power blackouts as temperatures fell to around -10C.

The Telegraph heard thunderous explosions at around 4am local time on Sunday, followed by successive blasts at regular intervals before the air alert ended at around 8am.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched four Zircon anti-ship missiles, 22 Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles, 18 X-101 cruise missiles, two Iskander-K cruise missiles and four X-59/69 guided air missiles, as well as almost 300 Shahed drones across the country.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said: “Moscow continues to invest more in strikes than in diplomacy. This week alone, Russia launched more than 1,300 strike drones, more than 1,400 guided aerial bombs and 96 missiles of various types, including dozens of ballistic missiles, against Ukraine.”

Poland’s operational command said it had been forced to scramble jets to protect the country’s airspace. It said in a statement: “On-duty fighter pairs and an early warning aircraft were scrambled, and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems were brought to the highest level of alert.”

Four people were killed in a Russian drone attack on an ambulance in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, including a 17-year-old boy, according to Oleh Hryhorov, the regional governor, late on Saturday.

Two brothers were injured in the initial assault, which used a drone to drop an explosive device. The emergency vehicle that arrived to take them to the hospital was targeted with a strike drone. A married couple was killed in the vehicle, while the ambulance driver was taken to hospital with severe burns, Mr Hryhorov added.

Hours before missiles struck Kyiv, blasts in the western city of Lviv left a 23-year-old police officer dead and dozens hurt. Police were responding to an emergency call about a break-in at a shop near the city centre when homemade explosive devices were detonated, authorities said.

Andriy Sadovy, the Lviv mayor, said: “This is clearly an act of terrorism.” Later, he revealed that police had detained an alleged perpetrator, a female Ukrainian citizen.

Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, said: “There is every reason to believe that the crime was committed on Russia’s orders. This is not the first time that the enemy has purposefully created deadly traps for Ukrainian law enforcement officers, and used our citizens recruited for this.”

Kyiv has frequently accused Russia’s Federal Security Service of plotting terrorist attacks, including explosions, on Ukrainian soil. Authorities did not say whether they suspected Russian involvement in the blasts early on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine hit an oil depot in Russian-occupied Luhansk overnight, causing a large fire, said Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-installed leader.

The Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region was left without electricity for several hours after Kyiv launched major attacks on its energy infrastructure, occupying authorities said.

Ukraine has launched major strikes on Russian military and energy facilities in recent weeks, and early on Saturday hit a factory producing some of Moscow’s flagship ballistic missile systems more than 870 miles behind Russian lines.