Blasts reported in Russian City of Belgorod, occupied Crimea

Overnight, loud explosions were heard in portions of South-West Russia and occupied Crimea.

According to Russian officials, the border city of Belgorod, where 25 people were killed on Saturday, was attacked again, as was Sevastopol in Crimea, where a Ukrainian missile was shot down.

The aerial conflict between Russia and Ukraine has escalated in recent days.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia used 300 missiles and 200 drones over the course of five days.

Late last week, Russia launched its largest aircraft bombardment of the invasion, killing almost 40 civilians. Ukrainian soldiers retaliated with an attack on Belgorod, which injured over 100 people.

More explosions were reported in Belgorod overnight and into Wednesday, with the region’s governor claiming that several drones were destroyed.

On Tuesday, Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s biggest cities including Kharkiv and Kyiv, killing at least five people and injuring dozens, local officials said. One person was also reported killed in a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod.

Those attacks came after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to step up strikes in response to recent attacks by Ukraine.

In his nightly address on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky said Russia had fired “almost one hundred missiles of various types” that day. They had, he said, been “specifically calculated by the enemy to cause as much damage as possible”.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said Russia’s recent bombardment was not something that came as a surprise but that for Ukraine to win the war they needed more weapons to respond and just clearly send a message to Russia that they should stop.