Russia claims four settlements in eastern Ukraine as war rages on

Russia has claimed four settlements in eastern Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry announced on Thursday. Troops are said to have successfully taken Chernihivka in Donetsk region, as well as Mala Slobidka and Mohrytsia in Sumy region and Yurchenkove in Kharkiv region.It comes after Russia hit Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, killing eight people in overnight attacks, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones, Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram app. The Ukrainian air force said that the capital and the western region of Lviv on Ukraine's border with Poland were the main focus of the attack.Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine (Reuters)Meanwhile, Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace during the attack. Ukraine's foreign minister said a Russian cruise missile crossed into Poland, after authorities there found a crater and debris in a field following reports of an explosion."So far, eight people have been reported killed across the country," Zelensky said. "Dozens of people were injured, and everyone is receiving the necessary medical care."Zelensky added that only the "extraordinary expertise" of Ukrainian air defence units helped save lives when air defence missiles were not provided or delivered slowly.Patriot air defence system in short supplyAir defence units shot down 55 missiles and 265 drones but only one of nine ballistic missiles, Ukraine's air force said, adding that 11 missiles and 17 drones hit targets at 20 locations.A rescuer works following a Russian missile strike at a location given as Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine (Reuters)The US-made Patriot air defence system is the only weapon in Ukraine's arsenal capable of downing Russia's ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, but they are in chronically short supply globally.A day of mourning was announced for Friday in a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including three children, were killed, regional officials said.One person was killed in Kyiv, and another in Poltava in central Ukraine, officials said.In Kyiv, where air alerts lasted more than five hours overnight, thousands of people sheltered in metro stations.Rescuers pull people out of destroyed building in LvivIn Lviv, a Russian missile hit a residential apartment building but did not explode, the city's mayor said.Emergency workers were pulling people out of the building, which suffered damage to its roof and upper floors.A woman reacts near an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine (Reuters)"I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs," resident Marko told Reuters as rescuers pulled a boy from the damaged building."I'm proud that we have rescuers who aren't afraid to go into situations where those slabs could collapse on them."About 30 people, including three children, were injured in the city where two residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, city officials said.Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday its forces struck what it called military facilities across Ukraine, from Kyiv to Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as three cargo ships.With the war in its fifth year, both Russia and Ukraine have escalated their long-range air strikes, while movement on the 1,200-km front line has slowed, as the predominance of aerial drones makes any major breakthrough difficult.