Russian missile strikes kill at least two in Kyiv

Russian attacks killed at least two people in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, with the Ukrainian capital rocked by multiple powerful explosions after authorities issued a missile alert.

The barrage was the latest in an intensifying exchange of long-range attacks, with both Kyiv and Moscow signalling at the United Nations that they will escalate strikes and dimming prospects for diplomacy.

More than 20 blasts were heard on Thursday, according to AFP journalists, after the Ukrainian Air Force warned that Russian ballistic missiles were headed for the city.

"Explosions in Kyiv. The capital is under ballistic missile attack. Remain in shelters!" Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in a Telegram message.

The strikes came as Zelensky was meeting members of the US Congress as part of his trip to the United States to request stronger sanctions against Moscow.

"Once again, the main targets of (the Russian) attack were Kyiv and civilian infrastructure -- residential buildings, a maternity hospital, energy facilities and logistics. Two people are already known to have been killed," Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Klitschko said in the early hours of Thursday that six people were wounded.

In Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, officials reported that a medical facility, an educational institution and residential buildings were damaged by Russian strikes.

The latest attacks came a day after a series of Russian strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine and sparked fires in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian capital, home to around three million people, has been the target of particularly intense drone attacks over the past few days, amid a marked escalation in long-range strikes on both sides of the front line.

Shortly before the blasts rang out on Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force issued a warning that Russian ballistic missiles were heading toward Kyiv and its surroundings and the Chernigiv region north of the capital.

"Every such attack happens because pressure on the aggressor has still not become total, and Russia believes it can continue its ballistic terror," Zelensky wrote, calling on the United States to supply missile interceptors and toughen sanctions.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country is "not going to have a pause" in its war against its neighbour.

Zelensky earlier told the UN General Assembly in New York that his forces would hit Russian heating and energy facilities this winter as he again slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Putin is always looking for someone who can help him kill more, kill more people for every kilometre of land, take more territory and take another country instead of simply stopping and running his own country," the Ukrainian president said.

"Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too," he added.

AFP analysis of data from the ACLED armed conflict monitor showed that there were more Russian strikes on the Kyiv region in the first 18 days of September than in any full month since the start of the war apart from March 2022.