A barrage of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities killed five people on Wednesday and injured 50 more, including a pregnant woman. “It’s another massive attack against our state,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement. Cities across Ukraine were hit, including the capital Kyiv, with Russia continuing regular assaults on Ukrainian cities as the two-year anniversary of the full-scale war approaches. The assault came as Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, was spending the night in Kyiv as part of a two-day visit to the capital to discuss EU support for Ukraine. “Starting my morning in the shelter as air alarms are sounding across Kyiv,” he wrote on X. Loud explosions were audible in Kyiv around 7am, and again 45 minutes later, as Ukrainian air defence engaged incoming projectiles. In the city’s Holosiivskyi district, the upper floors of an 18-storey residential building caught fire and terrified residents were evacuated. Officials said missile or drone wreckage had hit the building, and four people there were killed. Firefighters worked to put out the flames for several hours. An air alarm had sounded before the attacks, and authorities told residents of the capital to stay in their shelters, but after nearly two years of war, many people ignore the frequent alarms. The strikes also damaged high-voltage power lines in the capital, leaving some areas without electricity, and public transport was affected causing huge traffic jams during morning rush hour. Electricity was later restored. Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram that Russia had launched 20 drones, and 44 missiles of various types in its attacks across the country. It said it had intercepted 15 of the drones and 29 of the missiles. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, a Russian attack killed one person and caused damage to at least 20 buildings, the city’s mayor claimed. Oleksandr Sienkevych said drones and missiles had been used against the city early in the morning. “There are two damaged areas, one residential area and one infrastructure object. We’ve counted already 30 residential houses that were damaged,” he told local TV. Several people were injured, and one person was taken to hospital but died shortly after arriving, said Sienkevych. Five missiles were also launched at Kharkiv, and preliminary analysis suggested two of them were manufactured in North Korea, said Serhii Bolvinov, head of the national police’s investigation unit in the region. The UN says the conflict has killed more than 10,000 civilians so far, and wounded 20,000 more. In figures released on Wednesday, it said 158 civilians had been killed in January. The continued attacks come at a time when a major US aid package for Ukraine is in doubt, with its passage through the Senate likely to be blocked by Republicans. Ukrainian troops on the front lines report a shortage of ammunition and exhaustion. “If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most now, the answer will be shells,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told the visiting Borrell on Wednesday, calling for “urgent steps” to increase deliveries. “The scale of the war and Russia’s use of artillery reached a level for which, let’s be honest, the European defence industry was not ready,” he said. Also on Wednesday, Ukraine’s parliament approved a much-discussed new bill on mobilisation, that seeks to recruit more soldiers for the army, in its first reading. The bill may take weeks to become law.