If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here's a round-up of today's key events:

• Fourteen people died and dozens more were wounded after widespread Russian missile attacks on major cities across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, state emergency services said
• Several regions were left without electricity after the strikes, and water supplies in some areas were also compromised

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attacks were in response to what he has called a "terrorist attack" on a key bridge linking Russian-annexed Crimea to Russia on Saturday
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the strikes were a reminder that Russia's war against Ukraine "presents a profound moral issue", while UN Secretary General António Guterres was "deeply shocked" by the "unacceptable escalation", according to his spokesman
• Ukraine said residential buildings, schools, a nursery, healthcare institutions and a children's playground were among the damaged sites - but Russian MP Evgeny Popov told the BBC that strikes on sites such as playgrounds were caused by Ukraine's air defences

• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned there would be more strikes to come and signalled that the ramp up in attacks could be the start of a further escalation in the war on Russia's part

The number of people killed by Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Monday has risen to 14, Ukraine's State Emergency Services say, external.

97 people have also been injured, they say, while over 1,000 emergency workers are involved in rescue efforts.

The widespread attacks are being seen as a significant escalation on Russia's part.

Russian glee at flurry of missile attackspublished at 20:10 BST 10 October 2022

20:10 BST 10 October 2022

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent

Image source, ANTON KRASOVSKY

The hail of indiscriminate missile fire across Ukraine this morning was Russia's brutal payback for the attack on the Crimean bridge.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called it the response to an "act of terrorism" which he blamed on Ukraine.

But it was also Mr Putin's response to hawks in his own camp who have been growing increasingly restless with Russian losses in the war and increasingly loud with their calls for tougher action.

Those pro-Kremlin officials and TV hosts who were depressed and dejected just days ago are now cheering this assault on their neighbour, gloating and even dancing in social media posts as Ukraine grieves for its dead and picks through the wreckage of multiple attacks.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Washington's encouragement of Ukraine's "bellicose mood" complicates diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict.

"We repeat once more, especially for the American side: the objectives that we set in Ukraine will be achieved," Zakharova wrote on the ministry website.

Critical infrastructure and dozens of homes are among the sites damaged in the missile strikes in Kyiv on Monday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.

Posting on Telegram, external, he said the buildings damaged to varying degrees included:

• 45 residential buildings
• Five "objects of critical infrastructure and communal services"
• Three schools, one kindergarten, and two after-school clubs
• Five healthcare institutions

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has issued a statement on today's missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, which he said was another reminder that Russia's war against Ukraine "presents a profound moral issue".

"No person of conscience - and no country of principle - could be unmoved by the devastation of these horrors," Blinken said, promising that the US will continue to provide all kinds of assistance "so Ukraine can defend itself and take care of its people".

The statement comes ahead of a UN General Assembly meeting, which had been called to discuss Russia's annexation of four regions of Ukraine, but is also likely to cover today's attacks.

Blinken added: "Now is the time to speak out in support for Ukraine; it is not the time for abstentions, placating words, or equivocations under claims of neutrality."

Belarusian Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin has said his country doesn't want to wage war on Ukraine or other neighbouring countries - but warned against provocations, according to Belarusian media.

Khrenin said Belarus - a strong ally of Russia - was concerned by suggestions that its army might attack Ukraine.

"The only thing we can say is this: do not provoke us, we are not going to wage war on you. We do not want to fight either Lithuanians or Poles or, especially, Ukrainians," Khrenin said, according to the Zerkalo website.

He also warned the West against "acts of provocation", adding "you do not want a war with us, nor do we with you".

As we reported earlier, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said today that Russia and Belarus would deploy a joint military task force - though he didn't say where they would be deployed.

He also accused Ukraine of planning strikes on Belarus, according to comments reported by state media.

And the AFP news agency is reporting that he said Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine were training Belarusian "radical militants" to carry out "sabotage, terrorist attacks and to organise a military mutiny".

Poland, which shares a border with Belarus, has advised its citizens to leave the country, according to Reuters.

A map of the missile strikes in Ukraine on Monday shows their spread across the entire country.

Attacks were reported in Lviv and Ternopil in the west, in the capital Kyiv, in cities across the east, and at numerous other sites.

A number of missiles struck the very centre of Kyiv, hitting a park, a tower and a pedestrian bridge.

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

Image source, AFP

Today's strikes were launched two days after the appointment of a new overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine - Gen Sergei Surovikin - who oversaw Russia’s military campaign in Syria.

A veteran of Russia’s wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria, Gen Surovikin brings with him a reputation for ruthlessness and brutality.

As commander of Russia’s aerospace unit he was responsible for the obliteration from the air of much of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

But in Ukraine, Russia is up against a real army, equipped and trained by Nato countries, and the Russians have been losing both ground and prestige.

Hardliners in Moscow have been clamouring for a tougher approach to achieve their aim of subjugating Ukraine.

Gen Surovikin has already been commanding forces in Ukraine and it’s not certain how much difference his appointment will make.

Russia has lost several generals killed at the front and others have been sacked for incompetence. It’s clear that currently its forces are spread too thinly over too many fronts.

If Gen Surovikin plans a radical rethink he may well decide to focus on one area alone, and apply overwhelming and crushing force.

Widespread attacks in Ukraine today hit major cities across the country, from Lviv near the border with Poland to Kharkiv in the north-east.

A resident of Kharkiv, Natalya Zubar, told the BBC the attacks had brought the city to a standstill.

"I heard three rocket hits," said Natalya. "Almost immediately the electricity went off and I had no electricity for eight hours... The rest of the city was more lucky not to have electricity for five, or six hours.

"Also there were outages with mobile, internet, it was on and off all the time. And traffic lights are not working, they are still not working here.

"We had the metro and all the public transportation stopped and basically the life in the city was stopped."

In Lviv, a resident told the BBC people were trying to return to their normal activities following the attacks.

"I've seen many civilian people just walking their kids, dogs, children just having fun with swings, with the sand etc. So people are just getting back to normal," Dimko Zhluktenko said.

He said some Ukrainians had thought Lviv - far from the eastern frontline - wouldn't be a target for Russian forces, but the attacks had shown this wasn't the case.

"People kind of got this idea of false safety, maybe became a bit more ignorant in that sense. There is no safe place in Ukraine, there is nowhere to hide," he said.

Image source, .

As we've been reporting, Shevchenko Park in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, was one of the locations hit in this morning's Russian missile strikes.

These images show an area close to the park which was also hit with a missile, and compares how the road looked in 2015 with the aftermath of this morning's missile strike.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Today's attacks on Ukraine were likely intended to damage civilian morale and stretch the resources of the country's military, the defence editor of the Economist has told the BBC.

Speaking to the BBC, Shashank Joshi said that, by damaging critical infrastructure, Russia had sent a message that it plans to keep the Ukrainian economy "on its knees", regardless of any gains Ukraine makes on the battlefield.

"It also, as a secondary objective, I suspect diverts military resources onto the home front,” he said.

“If you look at the disruption of transport, infrastructure, energy... it’s going to make [fighting the war] that little bit more difficult."

But Joshi also said that Russia had already been running short of missiles, and appeared to have used up some 80-100 on Monday.

“They have to save some, of course, in case the war escalates, in case they have to fight Nato, fight the West," he said.

“So I don’t think Russia can keep up this pace of strikes in perpetuity, and they’ll have to resort to weapons that are not suited to [these kind of attacks].”

Germany to send Ukraine much wanted air defence systemspublished at 17:50 BST 10 October 2022

17:50 BST 10 October 2022

Chris Partridge
BBC News

In Germany, officials say they're planning to send Ukraine new air defence systems., external

Known as IRIS-T SLMs, they're used to "protect the population, important buildings, objects as well as ground troops against attacks from the air", according to Diehl BGT Defence, their manufacturer.

This is exactly the sort of system Ukraine has been asking for since the beginning of this conflict.

The system uses GPS and INS navigation, and receives frequent target positional data from its base station, guiding it towards the threat.

It also has an infra-red seeker as an additional feature and is effective against helicopters, aircraft, cruise missiles, air-to-surface weapons and anti-ship weapons. Crucial to all this is how many will be delivered - and when. It's all part of the gradual Westernisation of Ukraine's armed forces, following Russia's invasion in February.

Currently, Ukraine has Soviet-era surface-to-air (SAM) systems, comprising S-300 for long-range and Buk-M1 SAMs for shorter range. The German system would be a significant upgrade.

The US has provided the greatest amount of weaponry so far - totalling more than $17bn (£15bn), while the UK has supplied the country with the Starstreak anti-aircraft missile system, and other systems, as part of an assistance package worth £2.3bn.

US President Joe Biden says Monday's missile attacks demonstrated "the utter brutality" of Vladimir Putin's "illegal war" on Ukraine.

Accusing Russia of killing and injuring civilians, he said the strikes "further reinforce" America's commitment to stand with the people of Ukraine "for as long as it takes".

He also said Russia had destroyed targets "with no military purpose".

He called on Moscow to end the "unprovoked aggression immediately", and said Russian troops should be removed from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian ministry of energy has said it will have to stop supplying electricity to the European Union from tomorrow due to today's missile strikes, which hit thermal generation and electrical substations.

The interruption will help Ukraine stabilise its own energy system, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Ukraine started exporting power to the European Union on 1 July. At the time, President Volodymir Zelensky said the launching of power transmissions was the start of a process that could help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, Reuters reported then.

After a wave of Russian missile strikes, hundreds of Ukrainians have been forced to take shelter in designated safe spaces, and many more have had to deal with the aftermath of the blasts.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

The US has pledged to continue providing "unwavering" support to Ukraine and condemned Russia's "horrific" attacks this morning in which it fired dozens of missiles.

"We will continue to provide unwavering economic, humanitarian, and security assistance so Ukraine can defend itself and take care of its people," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted, external.

Blinken said he had spoken to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba "to reiterate US support for Ukraine".

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has spoken to Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, following this morning's air strikes.

"The United States condemns Russia’s attacks on the infrastructure facilities of Ukraine and is committed to holding Russia accountable for war crimes and atrocities committed in our country. Thank you for your support!" he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Abdujalil Abdurasulov
Reporting from Kyiv

Many in Kyiv are in shock at seeing the large crater left by a missile that hit one of the city’s busiest intersections on Monday morning.

Just yesterday, some of them went to cafes and restaurants a few hundred metres from the same spot. Others attended a performance of the opera Carmen at the National Opera House just a block away. Families went to the Shevchenko Park to enjoy a warm Sunday.

It seemed life in Kyiv was getting back to normal. That illusion has now been shattered.

Rockets struck central Kyiv during rush hour as people were heading to work. One hit not just Shevchenko Park, but its playground, where my children used to play and hang on the monkey bars.

The sense of anxiety is back in Kyiv. People no longer ignore air raid sirens, but instead go to basements, like they did back in February and March.

Many closely follow the news about missile launches and are alarmed by the reports that Belarus is gathering troops along its border with Ukraine. People are worried what will come next.

But unlike the early days of the invasion, many Ukrainians view today’s air strikes as a sign that Russia is losing.

A Russian MP and state television presenter has claimed Russia did not target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, following an apparent ramp up in attacks across the country, including in the capital Kyiv today.

"Our military is not attacking, is not shelling cities and civilian infrastructure. All our missiles was targeted [at] energy infrastructure, communication centres and military headquarters," Evgeny Popov told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

He blamed Ukrainian anti-missile systems for strikes on civilian targets, including a children's playground.

"If you see some missiles and blows on children grounds, it was a result of the work of anti-missile system, Ukrainian system," he said.

Ukraine's emergency services have shared an afternoon update of the situation in the country after a day that started with intense, widsepread strikes:

• Critical infrastructure was hit in 12 different regions as well as the city of Kyiv, where more than 30 fires broke out
• Electricity supply is partially disrupted in 15 regions, including Lviv, Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia
• In total, 11 people have died and 89 were injured

• The Ukrainian energy system will undergo a stress test for strength this evening. Ukrainians are asked to minimise electricity consumption from 17:00 to 23:00 by not turning on appliances ranging from electric heaters to boilers, kettles and washing machines