KYIV, Ukraine, Dec 29, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Russian strikes on Friday morning

hit Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv as well as Lviv in the country's
west, the mayors of the two cities said.

"At least six explosions were heard in the city," Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov
said in a Telegram post, while Lviv's Andriy Sadovyi reported "information
about 2 strikes" on the city, which lies just 70 kilometres from the Polish
border.

Terekhov described the assault on Kharkiv as "a massive missile attack".

Kharkiv's regional military administration said Russia had "made about 10
strikes on the city" and that experts were still determining the types of
weapons used.

No casualties were immediately reported in either city.

On Thursday, Russian forces shelled Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, killing
a 66-year-old woman and wounding one other.

Three women aged between 58 and 76 were wounded in an air strike on the
village of Glushkivka, also in the Kharkiv region, police said.

In Ukraine's southern Odesa, a high-rise building caught fire after being
struck by debris from a downed drone, the city's mayor said at midnight.

"As a result of another enemy attack, one of the high-rise buildings was
damaged. The fire was promptly extinguished," Mayor Gennady Trukhanov said in
a social media post.

The Kremlin has not commented on Kyiv's claims but said it had thwarted an
"attempted" Ukranian drone attack that targeted the Kursk region in the
country's west.

The latest attacks come a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the
United States for releasing the last remaining package of weapons for Ukraine
that had been previously authorised.