Ukrainian authorities said on Monday that Russian missile attacks had killed seven people in Lviv – the first civilian victims in the western city, just 40 miles from the Polish border – and that at least two people had died in shelling in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Russia's defence ministry has said it had hit hundreds of military targets across Ukraine overnight.

Analysts have said the shelling was designed to undermine the will of the Ukrainian people and weaken defences before a significant military push by Russia to conquer the eastern Donbas region.