The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases.

Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa, officials said.

Russia launched 315 drones at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was “one of the largest” attacks on the capital Kyiv, with local officials in the southern port city of Odesa also reporting a maternity ward there had been hit.