People pay their respects in front of a damaged multistory residential building, where a Russian strike killed 23 people in Uman. /Genya Savilov/AFP
TOP HEADLINES
• Russian forces launched a major airstrike against Ukraine in the early hours of Monday morning, with Kyiv's air defense crews shooting down 15 of 18 missiles as air raid sirens blared across the country. At least 34 people were wounded and dozens of homes damaged.
• A Russian freight train was derailed after it was hit by explosive device just over the Ukrainian border in Bryansk region, according to the regional governor. There were no victims in the attack.
• Ukrainian shelling killed four civilians in a border village in the same Russian region over the weekend, according to local officials.
• Undermining Russia's logistics is one of the key elements of preparation for Kyiv's expected Spring counter-offensive, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said, following a drone strike on a fuel storage facility in the Russian-controlled Crimean port of Sevastopol. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attack.
• Kyiv's forces say they are holding onto parts of the strategic city of Bakhmut, while the head of Russian-backed separatist group said his troops were making progress.
• Pope Francis has said the Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, stating after a three-day visit to Hungary that he was willing to do everything that has to be done.
• French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by phone on Sunday to discuss Ukraine's military demands.
• Ukrainian judokas will not take part in this month's world championships in Qatar after the International Judo Federation's (IJF) decided to readmit Russians and Belarusians as neutrals, the Ukrainian Judo Federation has announced.
• Russia has promised a harsh response to what it said was Poland's illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw.
Smoke rises following a drone attack in Crimea's Sevastopol. /Stringer/Reuters
IN DETAIL
Major airstrikes, heavy shelling ahead of counteroffensive
Russia fired missiles at targets across Ukraine in its second major air strike in three days, setting a huge blaze in a southeastern district where officials said 34 people were wounded.
Kyiv said 15 of 18 cruise missiles were shot down, shielding the capital Kyiv and other major cities, but there were reports of widespread damage in Pavlohrad, a railway hub behind the southern and eastern fronts.
A Russian-installed official in occupied Zaporizhzhia region confirmed Russian forces had struck military targets there.
Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council, said the attack had damaged 19 apartment blocks, 25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops.
The 34 wounded included three children, he said.
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The attacks came just three days after Russia missiles killed 23 civilians after it hit a high-rise apartment building in the city of Uman, part of its first major nationwide air strike in nearly two months.
Russia appears to have returned to its earlier tactic of countrywide air strikes ahead of Ukraine's long-planned counteroffensive to retake occupied land in the south and east.
On Saturday, an apparent Ukrainian drone hit a fuel storage depot in Sevastopol, base of the Russian navy in Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Following the attack, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said that undermining Russia's logistics is one of the key elements of preparation for Kyiv's expected Spring counter-offensive.
A separate explosion in a Russian region bordering Ukraine derailed a freight train on Monday, the local governor said.
Pictures shared on social media showed several tank carriages laying on their side and dark grey smoke billowing into the air at the site of the derailment in the Bryansk region.
Russian Railways, the country's rail operator, said the incident occurred at 10:17 Moscow time (0717 GMT), stating that the locomotive caught fire while seven freight wagons were derailed.
"An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136-kilometer mark on the Bryansk-Unecha railway line, derailing a freight train," Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Russian authorities say the region - which borders both Ukraine and Belarus - has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the last 14 months.
Over the weekend, four civilians died after Kyiv shelled a village just across the frontier.
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