Putin Strikes Back

Child among those killed during missile attack escalation, Bombings intensify but Ukrainian troops refuse to surrender

- Mark Reynolds And Tom Parry

RUSSIA stepped up its bloody onslaught yesterday - launching missile strikes on multiple cities across Ukraine, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Explosions were first reported in Lviv, where seven people were confirmed dead and 11 injured.

Rockets also hit Odesa and Dnipro, as Vladimir Putin becomes frustrated by his forces' slow progress and embarrassed by the sinking of his military's flagship in the Black Sea.

Just a day after missiles killed five and injured 13 in the second city of Kharkiv, the Kremlin's generals heavily increased the aerial bombardment across the invaded country.

The escalation comes as the first pictures and video were released showing warship Moskva on fire before it sank last week after Ukraine said it struck the flagship vessel with two missiles. The worst attacks came in Lviv in the west, where terrified residents woke to air raid sirens and explosions in a “marked escalation a for a city which had so far evaded most of the heavy bombing.

Five powerful Russian missile strikes left at least seven people dead and 11 injured, a rare fatal attack on the city 40 miles from the border with Poland that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began almost two months ago, on February 24.

Lviv's governor Makysm Kozytskyi warned residents: Stay in the shelters. At the moment we are able to confirm that seven are dead. A child was among the victims.

Grey acrid smoke was seen rising into the sky following the missile strikes. In total, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed it had hit some 315 Ukrainian targets overnight. The BBC's Dan Johnson, in Lviv, told how terrified residents awoke to sirens and shelling as the Russian offensive began.