MOSCOW: Russian forces launched a barrage of fatal bombardments across Ukraine early on Monday, in apparent retaliation for an explosion that damaged a key bridge to Moscow-annexed Crimea.

The biggest wave of strikes across Ukraine in months killed at least five people in Kyiv and came hours ahead of a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s security council.

Ukraine’s most senior military general said Russian forces had fired 75 missiles on cities across the country, in a wave of attacks that included Iranian drones and was the first Russian strike on Kyiv since late June.

“We were sleeping when we heard the first explosion. We woke up, went to check and then the second explosion came,” Ksenia Ryazantseva, a 39-year-old language teacher told AFP.

“We didn’t understand what was going on … well, we are at war,” she added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to the nation early on Monday said the morning had been “difficult” and explained that Russian forces had two targets with its barrage of strikes.

“They want panic and chaos and they want to destroy our energy system,” Zelensky said, announcing that Russian bombs had targeted cities including Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in the centre of the country and Lviv in the east.

‘Demonstration of weakness’

“The second target is people,” he said, accusing Moscow’s army of launching the strikes with aim of “causing as much damage as possible”.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that the Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and several other cities were “unacceptable”.

“This is a demonstration of weakness by [Vladimir] Putin, not strength,” he tweeted, adding that he had contacted his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.