Extract from ABC News
Russia is continuing to strike Ukrainian cities with missiles. (Reuters: Yan Dobronosov)
In short:
Russia's military has launched another wave of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, including one which damaged a building housing diplomatic offices of multiple countries.
Separately, a Ukrainian missile launch killed six people in Russia's Kursk region, local authorities said.
It came as Ukrainian forces retreated from two towns in the country's eastern Donetsk region, in a further sign Russia's military advance is continuing.
Russia launched a further round of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine on Thursday evening and Friday morning, including one that damaged the embassies of multiple nations in Kyiv.
It comes only two days after the Australian government announced it was reopening its embassy in Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said a single missile strike damaged a historical cathedral, six embassies and other buildings in Kyiv on Friday morning.
Portuguese foreign minister Paulo Rangel has condemned the strikes, which caused "relatively light material damage" to its embassy.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for attacks to damage or target diplomatic facilities", he said.
There is damage to buildings in Kyiv following overnight missile strikes. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv)
Ukraine's foreign ministry said that the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Portugal, housed in the same building, were damaged as a result of the strike. There were no casualties among diplomatic staff, it said.
In the absence of the Russian ambassador in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, the charge d'affaires of the Russian Federation has been summoned to be presented with a formal protest, the Portuguese government said.
In a statement on X, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the strike as "another heinous Russian attack against Kyiv".
"Putin's disregard for international law reaches new heights," she said.
A missile strike killed at least one person and damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital during the morning peak hour on Friday, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
A further 11 people were injured in the strike.
Ukraine's air force said it had shot down all five Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles used to attack the capital.
It said Russia launched 65 drones overnight, 40 of which were downed by defences and another 20 which failed to reach their targets.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it had struck a command centre used by Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency, a site which it said was involved in the designing and construction of missiles and a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.
"The goals of the strike have been achieved. All targets have been hit," the ministry said.
The Reuters news agency said it was unable to verify the reports by either side.
Residents of Kyiv are beginning to repair damage following the strikes. (Reuters: Yurii Kovalenko)
Six killed in Russian region after Ukrainian strike
The governor of the Russian region of Kursk, Alexander Khinshtein, has accused Ukraine of firing US-supplied HIMARS rockets at civilian targets.
The region has been at the centre of fighting after Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive earlier this year, claiming a small slice of Russian territory.
On Friday, Mr Khinshtein said the Ukrainian rocket strike damaged buildings including a school and a pilot training college.
He said the strike killed six people, including a child, and injured a further 10.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS state news agency Moscow would raise the attack at a UN Security Council meeting Friday.
Ukrainian forces retreat in east
Russian troops have been making steady gains in Ukraine's eastern front in recent months.
In the latest sign Ukraine's military is stretched thin, on Friday it said its forces had pulled back from two villages in Donetsk to avoid being surrounded by Russian forces.
"The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has decided to withdraw the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces from the area in question to avoid encirclement," Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces said on Telegram.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces had taken control of two more settlements in Donetsk region, Uspenivka and Novopustynka.
It claimed control of Trudove on Wednesday.
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