Russia has fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 19 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the centre of the country, officials said.
Three children were among the dead.
The missile attacks included the first one against Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, in nearly two months, although there were no reports of any targets hit.
The city government said Ukraine's air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv.
The strikes on the nine-storey residential building in central Ukraine occurred in Uman, a city located around 215 kilometres south of Kyiv.
Seventeen people died in that attack, according to the capital region's governor, Ihor Taburets.
They included two 10-year-old children and a toddler.
Another of the victims was a 75-year-old woman who lived in a neighbouring building and suffered internal bleeding from the huge blast's shock wave, according to emergency personnel at the scene.
The Ukrainian national police said 17 people were wounded and three children were rescued from the rubble.
Nine were hospitalised.
The bombardment was nowhere near the war's sprawling front lines or active combat zones in eastern Ukraine, where a grinding war of attrition has taken hold. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.
Ukrainian officials and analysts have alleged such strikes are part of a deliberate intimidation strategy by the Kremlin.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the latest long-range air-launched cruise missiles launched overnight were aimed at places where Ukrainian military reserve units were staying before their deployment to the battlefield.
"The strike has achieved its goal. All the designated facilities have been hit," Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, the Defence Ministry's spokesperson, said.
He didn't mention any specific areas or residential buildings getting hit.
In the south-eastern city of Dnipro, a missile struck a house, killing a two-year-old child and a 31-year-old woman, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. Three people were also wounded in the attack.
The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.
"This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post alongside images of the wreckage.
"And it will."
Interfax said explosions were also reported after midnight in Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine and in Mykolaiv in the south.
Russia's attacks on Friday came a day after the Kremlin said it would welcome anything that could bring the end of the conflict closer, referring to a telephone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.
It was the first time the leaders had spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
But the Kremlin said it still needed to achieve the aims of its "special military operation" in Ukraine, launched in February 24 last year.
Russian forces have suffered setbacks throughout the conflict and have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of Bakhmut, once a city of 70,000.
Russia sees Bakhmut as a key stepping stone to other cities in eastern Ukraine, now its major military objective.
Russian troops tried on Thursday to sever important supply routes into the eastern Ukrainian city and thereby put more pressure on defending forces, Ukrainian officers said.
Russian units have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000.
Kyiv is pledging to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to attacking other cities.
One of those cities further west, Kostyantynivka, was hit by a Russian missile on Thursday.
A school, a hospital and residential buildings were damaged and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said people had been injured.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukrainian troops in the east, told the Freedom television channel that Bakhmut had seen 13 new clashes in the past 24 hours.
"The enemy's main goal in the Bakhmut sector is to cut communication routes," he said.
"But thanks to constant counter-battery combat ... we can deliver supplies and evacuate our wounded."
Russia's Defence Ministry reported successes against Ukrainian positions in various sectors but made no direct reference to Bakhmut. Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleksander Musiyenko said districts were rapidly changing hands in fierce fighting.
"Ukraine is successfully conducting local counter-attacks, making it difficult for the Russians to capture Bakhmut," Mr Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio.
Wagner chief jokes of Bakhmut ceasefire
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group on Thursday said he was joking when he said his men would stop bombarding Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces on the other side of the frontline to show the city to visiting US journalists.
Wagner has been spearheading Russia's assault on Bakhmut since August, in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
But Ukrainian forces have so far thwarted Russian attempts to take full control of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's founder, said in an audio message published on Thursday by his press service: "A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home."
However, in a later audio message, Mr Prigozhin said: "Guys, this is military humour. Humour, and nothing more... It was a joke."
Mr Prigozhin, who has publicly lambasted Russia's military establishment over its conduct of the war in Ukraine, is known for his combative, down-to-earth style and also for his ironic sense of humour.
Last month, after long complaining about shortages of supplies for his fighters, Mr Prigozhin said he and his men had been "blown away" by the fact that they had finally started to receive ammunition deliveries.
ABC/wires
