Waves of Russian missile and drone strikes have killed at least 15 people and injured 116 others, with most of the casualties in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have reported. The massive aerial assault overnight into Tuesday struck 27 locations in the Ukrainian capital, damaging residential buildings and critical infrastructure, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Ukrainian officials were quick to call for international attention on the attacks as Kyiv pushes diplomatic efforts to raise pressure on Moscow to agree a ceasefire. "Today, the enemy spared neither drones nor missiles," Klymenko said, describing the attack as one of the largest against Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block, and emergency services were searching through the rubble for possible survivors, Klymenko added.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited a command post near the front lines in eastern Ukraine as fighting in the region intensifies in advance of the harsh winter season. He travelled to the "Vostok" command post in the east to be briefed on developments at the front as Russian forces stepped up attacks, according to footage posted by the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday. The minister was briefed on preparations for combat for the forthcoming winter and the training of drone operators, the Ministry of Defence said, according to AFP. "The situation today suggests the enemy has fewer and fewer opportunities. And they will continue to be reduced, thanks exclusively to your combat work," Shoigu told Russian soldiers as he sought to raise morale. The Ministry of Defence, whose video showed Shoigu arriving at the post via helicopter, added that the minister "drew special attention to the timely and sufficient provision of new winter uniforms and insulated footwear for all personnel" before winter, when temperatures plunge below freezing.

Tehran, Iran – Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, has met senior military and security officials in Iran and toured an exhibition of Iranian missiles and drones. Shoigu arrived in Tehran on Tuesday and was officially received by Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces. He has met Iranian Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajizadeh and security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Bagheri told Shoigu that military cooperation is at the vanguard of expanding relations between Tehran and Moscow, who have been working on a new long-term cooperation plan for months. "This document has serious military and defence dimensions, and can act as suitable grounds to expand long-term cooperation between the two countries," he was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

Russia has accused Ukraine of planning to attack annexed Crimea with long-range United States and British missiles and warned it would retaliate if that happened. Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu told a meeting of military officials on Tuesday that Moscow possesses information that Ukraine plans to strike Crimea with US-supplied HIMARS long-range rocket systems and British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles. "The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centres in Ukraine," Shoigu said. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and considers it to be outside the scope of its invasion – which is focused in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Ukraine is fighting to retake territory. Kyiv, which says it is battling for its survival in a war of colonial conquest, said it wants to reclaim all of its territory, including Crimea, the home of Russia's Black Sea naval base.

Russia has said that a division of its Bastion coastal defence missile systems has been deployed to Paramushir, one of the Kuril Islands in the north Pacific, some of which Japan claims as its territory. The move is part of a wider strengthening of Russia's defences in its vast far eastern regions, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday, partly in response to what he called United States efforts to "contain" Russia and China. Moscow's move also comes after high-level visits by Asian leaders to both sides of the Ukraine war. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, a close US ally and a key Chinese rival in East Asia, made a surprise trip to Ukraine this week, which some observers said was an attempt to upstage Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia. "To contain Russia and China, the United States is significantly increasing its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthening its political and military links with its allies, continuing to create a new American security architecture in this region," Shoigu said in a video of his address to Russia's top brass, published by the defence ministry.

Intensified spying by American drones near Ukraine could lead to an escalation and Russia will respond proportionally to future intelligence-gathering operations, Moscow's defence chief has told his US counterpart. The comments came in a phone conversation on Wednesday between Sergei Shoigu and Pentagon boss Lloyd Austin after the United States accused a Russian Su-27 fighter jet of colliding with one of its Reaper surveillance drones, forcing it to crash into the Black Sea. Russia denied it deliberately brought the unmanned aerial vehicle down. "It was noted that flights by American strategic lethal drones by the Crimea coastline were provocative in nature and created pre-conditions for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea zone," a defence ministry statement quoted Shoigu as saying. "[Russia] has no interest in such a development, but it will continue to respond proportionately to all provocations."

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his French counterpart in a telephone call on Sunday that the situation in Ukraine was rapidly deteriorating and trending towards "uncontrolled escalation". In a phone call with French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu published by the Russian side, Shoigu said Moscow had concerns Ukraine could use a "dirty bomb" in the conflict, without providing evidence to support the suggestion that Ukraine might use such a weapon. "They discussed the situation in Ukraine which is rapidly deteriorating," the defense ministry said in a readout of the call.