TOP HEADLINES

· Kyiv has vowed to strengthen its armed forces after Russia launched its biggest aerial assaults on Ukrainian cities since the start of the conflict, killing 14 people and wounding more than 100 in a single day. 

· Group of Seven leaders will hold a call on Tuesday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where he is expected to push the leaders of the world's richest nations to send weapons to defend itself from more missile attacks.

· Russian President Putin said he ordered the "massive" long-range strikes on Monday in response to Kyiv's purported attack on a strategic bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a key transport link for Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine's south.

· Russia's defense ministry said its missile attacks, which tore through intersections, parks and tourist sites, had hit "all designated targets", including Ukrainian military, communications and energy infrastructure.

· The presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia condemned the strikes in a joint communique, saying they constituted "war crimes under international law."

· According to the UN, the wave of attacks on Ukraine may have violated international laws on war and would "amount to a war crime" if civilians were deliberately targeted. 

· President Joe Biden, after speaking to his Ukrainian counterpart on the phone, said the U.S. would provide advanced air defence systems to Kyiv in the wake of the attacks. Zelenskyy said air defence was the "number 1 priority in our defence cooperation." 

· Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has ordered his troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what he said was a threat to Belarus from Kyiv and its Western partners. Paris said Belarus could face further sanctions if it gets more involved in the conflict.

· The UN General Assembly has rejected Russia's call for the 193-member body to hold a secret ballot later this week on whether to condemn Moscow's move to integrate four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.

· Turkey has called for a viable ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu saying both sides were moving away from diplomacy as the war has dragged on.

· President Putin could meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss Ankara's proposal to host talks between Russia and the West on Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.

· Ukraine is turning the tide against "exhausted" Russian forces, the head of the UK's intelligence agency is set to say on Tuesday in a speech where he will argue that Moscow's alleged mobilization of prisoners and inexperienced men "speaks of a desperate situation."

IN DETAIL

G7 leaders to talk with Zelenskyy

President Zelenskyy, in a planned call with the leaders of the G7 group of nations, is expected to demand more weapons so Ukraine can defend itself from Russian missiles, a day after Moscow launched retaliatory strikes that killed 19 people.

U.S. President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders will use the meeting to discuss what more they can do to support Kyiv following the most widespread wave of air strikes away from the front lines since the conflict began.

Russian missiles ripped through Ukrainian cities early on Monday, hitting power generating facilities as well as non-strategic targets such as parks and tourist sites, leaving many without power.

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At least 19 people were killed and 105 wounded, emergency services officials said, in an attack that Putin said was a retaliation for the bombing on Saturday of the Kerch Bridge which links Russia to Crimea.

As many as 301 settlements in the regions of Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky were still without electricity on Tuesday morning.

Ukrainian officials reported more strikes on Tuesday, including one on the southeastern town of Zaporizhzhia which killed at least one person.

Zelenskyy in a late Monday address said: "We will do everything to strengthen our armed forces. We will make the battlefield more painful for the enemy."

Widening conflict?

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said G7 leaders would also use the opportunity to warn Belarus not to become more embroiled in the conflict, after Minsk said it would respond to perceived Western threats against its sovereignty.

"Russia has crossed another line with a tactic that doesn't involve fighting on the battlefield but carrying out indiscriminate bombings and since yesterday deliberately hitting civilian targets on all Ukrainian territory," said Colonna.

"That is a violation of the rules of war and international law," she added, saying that France had agreed to ramp up weapons supplies to Kyiv after Monday's attack.

Russia's deputy foreign minister warned Moscow would respond to the West's growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

"We warn and hope that they realise the danger of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals," he said.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., said more Western help to Ukraine raised the risk of a wider war.

"Such assistance, as well as providing Kyiv with intelligence, instructors and combat guidelines, leads to further escalation and increased the risks of a clash between Russia and NATO," Antonov said.