THREE children were among seven victims of a bloody Russian hypersonic missile and drone attack in Lviv in western Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's forces launched the fresh wave of strikes just a day after 51 people were killed at a military institute in the central city of Poltava.
Among those killed were a baby and two girls aged nine and 14 and a woman working as a midwife in the city, which has previously escaped serious war damage.
Explosions were also heard over the capital Kyiv as air defences homed in on Russian missiles.
The drone and missile strike in the western town of Lviv, which saw 30 people injured, took place just 30 miles from the border with Nato member Poland.
In a video posted on Telegram that showed Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi among the debris of a destroyed building, he said more than 50 structures, from schools to homes and clinics, most of them in the heart of the city, had been damaged.
Residents in Lviv have been waking up to their town completely ravaged by Putin's overnight strikes.
One woman told how she was forced to leave the shelter she was hiding in because "everything was on fire".
She also struggled to find another shelter as the "smoke [was] covering everything".
A man also blamed Russia for trying to "destroy and intimidate us" by hitting residential areas.
Wednesday's attacks came a day after the war's deadliest single attack this year, when Russia hit a military institute in the central town of Poltava with two ballistic missiles, killing 51 and injuring some 271 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since called on allies to help with air defences and advocate to allow long-range strikes into Russia on Wednesday.
He said: "Everyone who persuades partners to give Ukraine more long-range capability to respond to terror fairly is working to prevent exactly these kinds of Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities."
Neighbouring Poland scrambled aircraft on Wednesday for the third time in eight days to maintain the safety of its airspace, the armed forces' operational command said.
The force added on X, formerly Twitter: "This is another very busy night for the entire air defence system in Poland due to ... the long-range aviation of the Russian Federation carrying out strikes."
The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, meanwhile, has announced the resignation of Dmytro Kuleba, the country's foreign minister.
Politicians would shortly debate Ruslan Stefanchuk's resignation request, the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced, adding that the administration was being restructured in order to fortify the nation.
As part of an anticipated reorganisation, a number of other ministers in the government have resigned.
Deputy prime ministers Olha Stefanishyna and Iryna Vereshchuk, minister of strategic industries Alexander Kamyshin, minister of justice Denys Maliuska, minister of environmental protection Ruslan Strilets, and head of Ukraine's state property fund Vitaliy Koval were among those who submitted their resignations yesterday.
On Wednesday, Russia also hit Kyiv and several other regions with missiles, but no immediate damage was reported.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones in the past 10 days, in what some Russian military bloggers call Moscow's response to Kyiv's recent incursion in its territory.
In Poltava, Russian Islander missiles scored a direct hit on a parade ground and canteen as electronic warfare trainees gathered in Poltava in northeastern Ukraine.
Dozens of military recruits scrambled for cover after being alerted by sirens but were blown up in the blast before they could reach for safety.
The attack was aimed at cadets from specialist military unit A3990 at the Institute of Communications but also damaged a nearby hospital.
Many people are now trapped under the rubble after buildings collapsed in the horror strike.
Russia has yet to comment on the attacks on Poltava and Wednesday's strikes on Lviv and Kyiv.
Moscow has often said its strikes target Ukraine's military, energy and transport infrastructure, not civilians.
Earlier this year, Russia struck an airfield in Poltava claiming to have destroyed Ukrainian jets, but Tuesday's attack was more direct and targeted city areas with civilian infrastructure.
In July, Russia sparked a "genocidal massacre" after blitzing a children's cancer hospital in Kyiv.
The missile strikes rocked Ukraine and killed at least 41 innocent civilians, including children, women and doctors.
