Ukraine's Kyiv area hit by Iranian-made kamikaze drones

Russian forces used Iranian-made kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine's capital and Odesa regions and slammed other areas with missiles, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday as Moscow punished the country for a fourth day after a truck bomb attack on a bridge to Russia-annexed Crimea.

A strike carried out near Makariv, a small city located 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Kyiv, destroyed critical infrastructure.

Throughout the capital region, residents whose lives had resumed some normalcy when the war moved east months ago again awoke to air raid sirens.

Russia intensified its bombardment of civilian areas in recent weeks as its military lost ground in multiple occupied regions of Ukraine that President Vladimir Putin illegally claimed as Russian territory.

Putin's supporters urged him to escalate the campaign further after the Crimea bridge attack.

It wasn't clear if the explosive-packed drones caused any casualties. Ukrainian officials said dozens of people died this week after the Russian military ramped up the scope of its attacks, including at least two killed on Thursday in a missile strike that destroyed an apartment building in southern Ukraine.

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Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that Iranians in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine were training Russians how to use the Shahed-136 systems, which can conduct air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare and targeting.

Their deployment may indicate the Russian military is running out of its own drones.

The low-flying aerial devices help keep Ukraine's cities on edge, but the British Defense Ministry has said the Iran-made drones were unlikely to be fulfilling their purpose of providing strike options deep into Ukrainian, with many reportedly destroyed before they hit their targets.

Ukraine's air force command said on Thursday its air defence shot down six Iranian drones from over the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions during the night.

The Russian military resumed widespread attacks in Ukraine on Monday following an explosion that damaged the Kerch Bridge.

The 12-mile span holds importance as a symbol of Moscow's power and carries military supplies from Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament said Russian forces struck more than 70 energy facilities in Ukraine this week.

He threatened an “even tougher” response to future attacks by “the Kyiv regime,” although Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bridge bombing.