Russian attacks hit Ukrainian cities at a tense time for Kiev

Rockets flew into Kiev early Wednesday in a Russian attack that killed at least three people, according to local officials, jolting residents awake with air raid sirens and explosions and igniting a fire that sent plumes of smoke pouring over the Ukrainian capital.

The barrage, which targeted rockets and drones at cities across the country, coincided with a moment of heightened uncertainty for Ukraine. Russian forces are launching attacks on towns and villages along the front, US aid is in doubt and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is preparing for what he says will be a major shake-up in his government and the leadership of the military.

Mr Zelenskiy is considering replacing General Valery Zaluzhny, the country's top military commander, but has not yet announced any decision on the matter. General Zaluzhny remains in office and said Wednesday morning that Ukrainian air defense teams had destroyed 44 of the 64 cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones that Russia fired in the attack.

Since late last year, Russia has stepped up its large-scale aerial bombardment in an effort to exploit dwindling supplies of critical Western air defense munitions and inflict maximum damage.

“Ukraine needs help,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office, said in a statement. “Only the joint efforts of democracies will stop the criminal Putin.”

The scale of the latest attack was still emerging Wednesday morning, but two people were killed and at least 13 others injured in the capital, according to city officials.

When the Ukrainian air force warned around 7 a.m. that missiles were flowing along the Dnipro River towards Kiev, interceptor missiles streaked through the air to counter the threat. Explosions reverberated in the air and a residential building caught fire during the attack, sending plumes of black smoke billowing over the city of more than three million people during the morning rush hour.

Residents in one neighborhood temporarily lost power after debris hit a power line, local energy supplier DTEK said in a statement.

In the southern port city of Mykolaiv, airstrikes damaged more than 20 residential buildings, city officials said, and killed at least one person.

Rocket attacks were also reported in the Kharkov region in northeastern Ukraine, in Cherkasy in the center of the country and in the Lviv region, near the border with Poland.