Firefighters work at a site of a Russian military strike in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Reuters

Gulf Today Report

Russia launched a third nightly round of attacks on Kyiv in six days, city authorities said early on Wednesday, but air defence systems destroyed all its drones, with no immediate reports of casualties or destruction.

Air raid sirens blared for several hours in Kyiv, the surrounding region and most of eastern Ukraine, with the skies clearing only at dawn.

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"All enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital," Kyiv's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app, citing initial details.

Some analysts, however, note that taking control of Bakhmut could be helpful to Russian efforts to advance on the larger cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.

Traces of the explosions are seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters

Russia used Iranian-made Shahed drones in the attacks, it added. It was not immediately known how many drones were shot down.

Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine ahead of a counteroffensive widely expected by the latter, sending nearly nightly waves of drones and missiles to target Kyiv and other areas over the past week.

One of Wednesday's drones hit an administrative building in Dnipro, the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk region, its governor, Serhiy Lisak, said on Telegram, and set it on fire, although that was put out by morning.

Air defence units shot down seven drones over the region, he added.