Six people have been killed in Russian air strikes despite reports US President Elect Donald Trump reportedly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate his conflict with Ukraine.
At least 21 others were injured during the latest attack in southern Ukraine, regional governors said on Monday.
Five people were killed in the Mykolaiv region and one was killed in the Zaporizhzhia region, where a residential building was destroyed, the governors of the regions said on the Telegram messaging app.
Among the injured in Zaporizhzhia were five children between the ages of 4 and 17.
The attacks came shortly after news broke that Trump reportedly asked Putin not to escalate his conflict with Ukraine, shortly after winning the US Presidential Election.
The Washington Post reports Trump spoke with Putin on Thursday in the pair’s first conversation since the convicted felon’s surprise victory, which has been dubbed by his supporters as “the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America”.
Trump is understood to have reminded Putin of Washington’s large military presence in Europe.
The two men are believed to have discussed peace in Europe and Trump expressed an interested in follow-up conversations to discuss the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon.
Trump has consistently said one of his priorities was to end the war in Ukraine but has not made clear how he intends to do so.
Thousands of people have died since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.
The Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions and most the of eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts and the threat of Russian drone attacks on and off for most of Sunday night, starting around 7.30pm GMT on Sunday, according to data from the Ukrainian air force.
Blasts were heard in Kyiv and parts of the city were left without power early on Monday after Ukraine's air force put the whole country under air raid alerts following the launch of Russian missile attacks.
"The air alert is related to the launch of cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers," the air force said on their Telegram channels.
Reuters reported that witnesses heard blasts in Kyiv in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
Parts of the Ukrainian capital were also without power, witnesses reported, after local reports of emergency blackouts in several regions due to the attack.
