Anti-aircraft defenses were forced to work again at dawn on Friday in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, targets in the last days of intensive bombing by Russian forces, reports AFP.

The military and mass media reported on explosions, including in Lviv and Rivne in the west of the country, as well as in Kherson in the south. Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the civil-military administration of the Kryvyi Rih (southern) region, urged residents to stay in shelters and reported on the explosions.

The night before, Kyiv and several other cities of Ukraine were hit by a wave of Russian missile attacks. The Ukrainian military claims to have shot down almost all the shells. On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it hit and destroyed all the targets of its night raids.

The civil and military administration in Kyiv assessed that the Russian attacks carried out since the beginning of May were “unprecedented in power, intensity and variety.”

Regarding the situation at the front, the leader of the Russian PMK “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin estimated that the capture of the city of Bakhmut in the east of Ukraine in the coming days is unlikely. Telegram on Thursday evening reported on heavy fighting on the southwestern outskirts. “Bakhmut has not yet been conquered. This is a suburb called Airplane. It is an impregnable fortress made up of rows of blocks (…) There they are taking place at this moment of the most difficult battles,” said the leader of Wagner’s mercenaries.

“Then an important request: happiness loves silence. Let’s get the job done,” he added.

The battle for this city in Donbas is the bloodiest and longest since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.