Image source, AFP

An eyewitness to some of this morning's attacks on Ukraine's capital Kyiv has spoken of how painful seeing her city attacked was.

Speaking on the BBC's Newshour, Ukrainian novelist Victoria Amelina said she heard three explosions as she was travelling through the city in a taxi.

"I saw the burning cars, then I decided to stop the taxi, go out and see if I could help anyone," she said. "I saw a shell hole in the children's playground."

Despite the explosions, she said that eight months into the war, the missile strikes didn't frighten her.

But the scenes of destruction were painful: "It was painful for me, it's something I cannot understand."

She adds, however, that Ukrainians have remained "resilient" in spite of the attacks.

"I didn't hear anyone saying that he or she was afraid, or we should stop fighting. Everyone is ready to fight and win as soon as possible.

"It all just makes us more angry I guess, although I don't have too much anger, I just think we have to do what's necessary."

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Emergency services in Ukraine's neighbour, Poland, have started checking the condition of more than 60,000 bomb shelters across the country, a deputy interior minister has said.

“Firefighters are checking their condition, whether they are equipped and fit for use. If not, we are taking steps to adapt them,” Maciej Wasik told the broadcaster Polsat News.

He said there were 62,000 shelters across the country, and that the check would last about two months.

Wasik said the country was preparing itself for the “darkest scenarios” even if there was only a “small probability that they will occur”.

The deputy minister said Poland, as both a member of the Nato military alliance and the European Union, was a safe country.

Last month, Polish authorities decided to distribute iodine tablets to local fire stations to protect citizens against potential exposure to radioactivity following shelling close to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Taken correctly, the tablets can protect the body against some of the harmful effects of radiation.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has spoken to UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and that he is counting on the UK's "leadership" in rallying the international community together to "protect Ukraine's skies".

In a statement, Downing Street added Truss strongly condemned "Putin’s appalling attacks on civilian areas in Kyiv and elsewhere today", adding these were "a sign of Ukrainian success and increasing desperation by Putin in response".Truss went on to say the UK stood "wholeheartedly" behind Ukraine and that both leaders welcomed the deliveries of British military aid which continues to arrive in Ukraine.

She also mentioned Tuesday's virtual meeting of G7 leaders that Zelensky will join.

Image source, .

As we've been reporting, there have been a number of strikes on the Ukrainian capital itself.

Strikes were reported on Volodymyrska Street - a bustling central street which in peacetime is lined with stalls selling souvenirs and handicrafts.

The central Taras Shevchenko park was also hit. One of Kyiv's university buildings stands right opposite the busy green space, which features several cafes and a playground.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's where things stand on the ground following Russia's latest missile attacks:

• The death toll has risen to 11 after Russian missiles struck major Ukrainian cities this morning, Ukraine's state emergency services said
• Several regions around Ukraine have been left without electricity after today's missile strikes
• The strikes are a strategic escalation, aimed primarily at punishing Ukraine for what Putin calls "a terrorist attack", referring to Saturday's explosion on the Crimean bridge linking Russia to the illegally occupied peninsula
• Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has condemned Russia's "horrific and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine" and said Nato's military alliance would continue to support Ukraine to fight back against Kremlin aggression
• 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

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

Image source, EPA

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says Russia has shown it stands for "terror" and "brutality".

Reacting to missile strikes in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, she said: "Those who are responsible have to be held accountable."

The European Commission president promised the EU would stand alongside Ukraine for as "long as it takes". She was speaking in a video message , externalalongside the prime minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, near the EU’s eastern border with Russia.

Kallas said Western allies must deliver air defence systems to Ukraine, "so that Ukrainians can protect their cities, their civilians because Russia is definitely escalating to harm the civilians".

Von der Leyen had been on a pre-scheduled visit to Estonia.

UN Secretary General António Guterres is "deeply shocked" by today's large-scale missile attacks, his spokesman says.

The wave of strikes "reportedly resulted in widespread damage to civilian areas and led to dozens of people being killed and injured", and "constitutes another unacceptable escalation of the war", Stéphane Dujarric says in a statement.

"As always, civilians are paying the highest price," he adds.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Alexander Lukashenko - the leader of Belarus - is under pressure to show solidarity with Vladimir Putin in this war, especially as Russia’s international isolation increases.

Belarusian territory, which lies to the north of Ukraine, has been key to the invasion from the start.

Russian tanks rolled across the Belarusian border on the way to Kyiv at the beginning of the conflict, and Belarus is still a launchpad for Russian missiles.

But Lukashenko's watchword is "stability" and he's always pledged not to involve his country's soldiers directly in the fighting - not to get "dragged into" this war.

He knows there's no appetite for that at home, and this is the president who faced unprecedented, giant street protests two years ago against his highly controversial re-election.

He's imprisoned hundreds of his critics and thousands more have fled the country. He survived as leader in large part because of Vladimir Putin’s overt support.

Today's talk of forming a "joint task force" with Russia looks more like gesturing than a switch to direct involvement. But Lukashenko is walking a political tightrope. Belarus is one to watch.

Image source, Getty Images

Several regions around Ukraine have been left without electricity after today's missile strikes.

Lviv, Poltava, Sumy and Ternopil regions were left with no power, and supply has been partially disrupted in other areas, according to Ukraine's state emergency service.

Power in the city of Sumy has since been restored, and most of the damaged infrastructure will be repaired by the end of the day, Ukraine's prime minister says.

Earlier, the Deputy Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Moskalenko, told the BBC that diesel generators were being used to provide water to buildings in the city, but there is currently no hot water.

Trams are not running, and most traffic lights in the city are not working. There are also problems with the mobile phone network.

Ukrainian authorities are asking people across the country to reduce electricity consumption between 17:00 and 22:00 local time to help manage the reduction in power.

Image source, .

Russian missile strikes are a strategic escalationpublished at 14:43 BST 10 October 2022

14:43 BST 10 October 2022

Frank Gardner
Security Correspondent

Russia's military has a huge arsenal of missiles - both precision-guided and other older, cruder ones. It's using them not just on the battlefield, but to hit cities all over Ukraine.

These strikes right across the country are a strategic escalation, aimed primarily at punishing Ukraine for what Putin calls "a terrorist attack".

He's referring to Saturday's explosion on the Crimean bridge linking Russia to the illegally occupied peninsula. That triggered outrage in Moscow, where there has also been mounting criticism of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu for the poor performance of the Russian army.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Advancing Ukrainian forces are pushing the Russians back on several fronts. They are better equipped, better led and better motivated than the Russians. But they are also heavily dependent on weapons from allies and Putin wants to scare the West into stopping those supplies.

Retired British Army General Sir Richard Barrons says the kind of attacks we've seen this morning are "much more for psychological than practical effect".

They are about Putin trying to make it clear to both his supporters and opponents that Russia can still win this war, says Barron. But he adds: "That is not going to happen, Ukraine will eventually win."

Yet for now, there's still a lot more damage Russia can inflict on Ukraine’s population, hitting homes and energy supplies to make them suffer for resisting its invasion.

A Ukrainian MP has told the BBC that the mood in Kyiv in response to this morning's strikes has been "not fear, but fury".

Inna Sovsun says she rushed to shelter with her 10-year-old son in an underground metro station after hearing a second round of missile strikes.

"People were rather calm given the circumstances," she says, detailing the provisions that others took with them, including water, food, blankets and power banks for their gadgets.

Although Sovsun felt concerned when her son started asking whether he would die, she says the boy "gathered himself" and they then spent three hours in the refuge before emerging again.

Many people inside were angry with Russia rather than scared, such says, because their day got "interrupted for no good reason".

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Getty Images

The first explosion happened after 08:00 local time.

I was broadcasting from the BBC’s live position, overlooking St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, when I heard a loud noise from the sky. It’s extremely rare for helicopters or aircraft to fly over Kyiv, so any sound coming from the sky immediately gets people’s attention.

I looked up, and I saw what looked like a missile. Then, a massive explosion, followed by plumes of smoke. It came from the direction of the city’s famous glass footbridge, a tourist landmark in the city centre near the Dnipro River, not far from the monastery.

There has been a sense of normality in the capital recently. Kyiv had not been attacked for a long time, and fighting was limited to distant parts of the country.

The attacks - Russia’s reaction to Saturday’s explosion that hit the only bridge linking Russia to Crimea - will also be seen as a message that nowhere in Ukraine is safe.

As I write this, the air raid here has again gone off.

Image source, Reuters

In wake of the large-scale air strikes across Ukraine today, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned "there will be others".

Writing on social media, external, the close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled that the ramp up in attacks could be the start of a further escalation in the war on Russia's part.

"Ukraine would be a constant, direct and clear threat to Russia," he wrote. "The aim of our future actions must be the full dismantling of the political regime in Ukraine."

The BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg says a statement of this nature suggests that, if this is indeed the view of the Kremlin, Russia may want to push on with the war until it makes sure the whole of Ukraine is back in Russia's orbit.

There's more reaction now to the strikes on Ukrainian cities, which Russia has said it carried out in retaliation for an attack on the bridge between occupied Crimea and the Russian mainland.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's secretary general, says he's spoken to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to condemn the "horrific and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine".

He also recommitted support for Ukraine, tweeting that the military alliance will "continue supporting the brave Ukrainian people to fight back against the Kremlin's aggression for as long as it takes".

Ukraine’s state emergency service has said that least 11 people killed in Russian missile strikes. Eight of these are reported to have died in Kyiv.

Earlier, the national police of Ukraine said that about 60 people had been injured across the country.

Putin's response to Crimea bridge attack is clearpublished at 13:48 BST 10 October 2022

13:48 BST 10 October 2022

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

Image source, Reuters

Vladimir Putin’s response to the Crimea bridge bombing was already clear by the time he addressed the Russian security council on Monday morning.

President Putin ordered a wave of missile and rocket attacks on Ukraine. Russian forces carried out a mass strike with long range high-precision weaponry from land, sea and air on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, military command and communications facilities.

And then this warning came from the Kremlin leader: there would be a harsh response if Ukraine continued to carry out what he called "terrorist attacks on Russian territory".

Saturday's attack on the bridge linking Russia and Crimea was a blow to President Putin – the bridge is very much a symbol of his annexation of the Crimean pensinsula.

Meanwhile, there are fears of a potential further escalation of this conflict.

The leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said he had ordered his troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine. He claimed the combined Russia-Belarus force was a response to threats from Kyiv.

Image source, EPA

If you're just joining us or need a catch up, here's what's been happening in Ukraine today:

• Russia has carried out a large wave of missile strikes on cities across Ukraine. Ukraine's air force says 83 missiles were launched, of which more than 43 were shot down
• Ten people have been killed and 60 injured in the attacks across the country, police have said. The strikes in the capital, Kyiv, targeted parks and roads used by commuters to get to work, one resident said
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened a "harsh" response, should attempts to "carry out terrorist attacks" on Russia continue
• The European Union said that Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine amount to a "war crime" and countries like Poland are pushing for further sanctions, while European leaders have reaffirmed their support for Ukraine
• Ukrainian President Zelensky said the G7 is to hold an emergency meeting following the strikes across Ukraine and that he will deliver an address

Air raid sirens are going off in Kyiv again, the official Telegram channel of the capital's administration reports.

Earlier, the city's mayor Vitaliy Klitschko urged residents to continue to observe safety measures and to stock up on water and food.

China hopes the violence in Ukraine "will de-escalate soon", a foreign ministry spokesperson has said.

The spokesperson was responding to a wave of alleged Russian missile strikes reported across Ukraine this morning.

China - a traditional ally of Russia - has not endorsed the invasion, but it has grown trade and other ties with Moscow since it was launched.

Putin went for the easiest, most visual optionpublished at 13:15 BST 10 October 2022

13:15 BST 10 October 2022

Vitaly Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

This wave of missile strikes comes after a hugely humiliating event on Saturday when the bridge linking Crimea to Russia was targeted and blown up.

It was extremely humiliating to Putin - it came right after his birthday - so he was under pressure to respond. He could not afford to look weak.

Ukraine's key cities have been targeted. We don't really know the whole scale of the damage caused or the exact death toll but clearly this is hugely devastating to Ukraine.

Russian troops have been retreating on the battlefield and this puts President Putin under a lot of pressure domestically from hardliners. Without being able to achieve much progress on the battlefield, this is how he's responding.

These missiles are relatively easy to launch but very difficult to intercept, so he went for the easiest option, for a very visual option. It's no coincidence that Russian TV has been showing the impact caused by these strikes, as if to say "we're still in control, we're still dominant, this is what we can do".

We've heard of power outages and communication problems. The weather in Ukraine is getting colder, so this will have a dramatic impact on the morale of ordinary Ukrainians. We've seen a lot of strikes on the roads during rush hour in Ukrainian cities, so this seems to be part of Putin's calculus as well.