Russian attacks across Ukraine have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens, officials have said, with the heaviest casualties and damage reported in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region and the western region of Lviv.

The overnight strikes into Thursday were the latest in a series of large-scale Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities that Moscow has intensified over the summer, now taking place on an almost weekly basis.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “it is important to support the protection of life” as he condemned “Russian terror” in the aftermath of the attacks.

“Protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people,” he said in a post on X, adding that the work cannot be “left to Ukraine alone or to any one country alone”.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired more than 70 missiles, a significant number of them ballistic, along with more than 280 attack drones, and that Ukrainian air defences shot down more than 260 of the drones.

He said delays in the delivery of anti-ballistic missiles and untimely assistance had contributed to the scale of destruction and casualties seen in the latest attack, adding that continued support for Ukraine’s air defences was crucial to protecting lives.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said its air defences had shot down 258 Ukrainian drones overnight. Penza Governor Oleg Melnichenko said a depot belonging to the Wildberries online retailer was set on fire, adding that one person was injured and about 200 workers were evacuated.