Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

At least 40 people have been injured, and five people are known to have died, in early morning Russian missile attacks on cities across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Tuesday.

Posting an update on Telegram, Klymenko summed up the extent of the damage and impact of the latest strikes as follows:

Russia has launched another wave of missile strikes across Ukraine — the capital Kyiv was targeted, as was the second-largest city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday, detailing increasing numbers of casualties and ongoing rescue efforts.

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said a building and cars were on fire in one district of the city while the windows of an apartment building were shattered by a blast wave in another area. A non-residential building was hit in another district.

Posting on Telegram, Klitschko said one person was killed in the strikes and nine others injured. Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s regional military administration (RMA) urged civilians to shelter this morning while air raid warnings continued.

Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv was also targeted overnight. Oleg Synehubov, the head of the Kharkiv RMA, said on Telegram that a residential high-rise building in the Kyivskyy district of the city had been attacked, leaving “people under the rubble.” Rescue work is ongoing, he said.

Synehubov said in a later post this morning that 35 people were injured in the strikes and two people died.

In central Ukraine, two people were killed in the town of Pavlohrad, near the city of Dnipro, after a “massive missile attack by Russians on the city,” Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk RMA, said on Telegram.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a “new Polish defense package” after meeting in Kyiv with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was making his first visit to a non-EU country since returning to the top job in December.

“We appreciate such unflagging support. There is a new form of our cooperation – aimed at a larger scale of arms purchases for Ukrainian needs – the Polish loan for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Further details of the defense package were not provided. CNBC has contacted the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The leaders also discussed “the possibilities of joint future arms production,” Zelenskyy said.

Tusk, the former president of the European Council, meanwhile said that Poland would try to help Ukraine with its process of EU accession.

It comes as the neighboring countries vow to end an ongoing and heated dispute over cross-border trade flows. Political relations deteriorated in fall 2023, leading to then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki saying Poland would no longer supply weapons to Ukraine.

— Jenni Reid

The number of people killed or injured in a missile strike on a market in Donetsk city on Sunday has risen, a Russian-installed official said Monday.

Denis Pushilin, head of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, told the Rossiya-24 news channel that 27 people have now died in the strike, and 26 are injured, news agency RIA Novosti said, reporting his comments.

Pushilin blamed the attack on Ukraine, saying it had resorted to targeting civilians as a result of failures on the battlefield.

“The methods do not change: the worse the enemy’s situation within the military confrontation, the more often they try to take it out on the civilian population. Non-humans. We see a dependence here in the sense that the enemy’s capabilities become fewer, and as soon as such an opportunity arises, they try take it out on the civilian population,” he claimed.

Pushilin also claimed Ukraine had used cluster munitions in the strike, which the Kremlin described as a terrorist attack.

Ukrainian armed forces operating in the region denied they had carried out the attack, stating Sunday that they “did not conduct any combat operations with means of destruction.”

A day of mourning in Donetsk was declared by Russian authorities Monday.

— Holly Ellyatt

The Kremlin called the alleged Ukrainian shelling of a marketplace in Donetsk Sunday a “monstrous act of terrorism.”

“The Kyiv regime continues to show its bestial face and strikes at civilians,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

At least 25 people died in the attack on the market in Donetsk city, while 20 others were injured.

Ukrainian armed forces operating in the region denied they had carried out the strike, stating that they “did not conduct any combat operations with means of destruction.”

Russia claims Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as its own territory, having unilaterally annexed the region in late 2022. Ukraine and its allies reject the claim.

Peskov added on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had received reports on the Donetsk attack and that Russia’s “special military operation” — as it calls its invasion of Ukraine — would continue in order to “protect” people.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian energy company Novatek is likely to resume large-scale operations at its Ust-Luga processing complex and Baltic Sea terminal within weeks, following a suspected drone attack seen disrupting naphtha flows to Asia, analysts said on Monday.

The tightening of supply from Russia, following fears of disruption in European naphtha exports to Asia from Yemeni Houthis’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea, are driving up naphtha prices and refining margins in Asia.

The profit margin for making naphtha in Asia jumped by about $6 to $91.70 per metric ton over Brent crude on Monday after four straight sessions of losses.

Novatek said on Sunday it had been forced to suspend some operations at the huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and “technological process” at the complex due to a fire, started by what Ukrainian media said was a drone attack.

Kommersant newspaper also said on Monday, citing local authorities, that two storage tanks and a pumping stations were damaged due to the incident.

“We believe the plant is likely to return to significant capacity within weeks or, at worst, months,” analysts at Moscow-based BCS brokerage said in a note.

Novatek declined to comment. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia’s military and other government agencies were taking the necessary measures, including when it comes to air defences, after the suspected Ukrainian drone attack on the terminal.

— Reuters