The situation on the Ukrainian front lines is difficult, with a tendency toward worsening, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Olexander Syrskyi said on Telegram on Saturday.
Syrskyi and other top officials had updated the US-led Ukraine Contact Group, in an online meeting on Friday, about the tough conditions on the front as Ukraine tries to repel a more than two-year-old Russian invasion.
Syrskyi also reported on the large number of Russian air strikes against the country's energy infrastructure.
Ukraine urgently needs missiles, ammunition, military equipment and combat technology, he said, again thanking the United States for its help. Washington wants to provide further weapons and support to the tune of $6 billion, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Friday. On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a nearly $61 billion aid package after months of Republican wrangling in Congress.
Overnight, at least four thermal power plants were damaged as Russia again targeted Ukraine with a round of massive airstrikes overnight, the operator said on Saturday.
Of the 32 missiles and cruise missiles launched from the air, the Black Sea and the ground, 21 were intercepted, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Several people were injured at the damaged energy facilities, operator DTEK said, adding that workers were trying to repair the damage, the company added.
Air raid sirens sounded across the country ahead of the attacks which had mainly targeted power plants, according to the Energy Ministry in Kiev.
Two power plants were hit in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, in the country's industrial heartland, authorities said. Attacks were also reported from the western Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said a bitumen plant and a military airfield on the Russian side had also been hit. There was no official confirmation of the report.
Authorities also reported explosions in Kharkiv, the north-eastern city near the Russian border that has been repeatedly the target of attacks in recent weeks.
The grounds of a hospital were hit in the Russian attack, it said, with buildings damaged and windows shattered due to the blast wave from an explosion. One patient was injured in her bed. The authorities also published pictures of the damage.
In Russia, five people were injured in the region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, when a drone hit the road in a village and exploded, authorities said. hree cars were damaged and their occupants injured, it was reported.
An oil processing plant in Krasnodar was damaged in a fire but no one was injured, local authorities said and two drones were reportedly also shot down above Crimea.
Meanwhile, the Russian armed forces reported on Saturday that they had now penetrated deep into the Ukrainian defences after capturing individual villages in the eastern Donetsk region.
The information could not be independently verified. However, Western military experts have also recently recognized individual tactical successes for the Russian forces.
The Russian military carried out more than 30 group strikes against Ukraine in recent weeks, according to the Defence Ministry in Moscow.
The recent attacks on energy facilities, defence plants and railway infrastructure were a reaction to the attacks on objects in Russia, it said.
Russian air defences reportedly intercepted more than 1,600 Ukrainian drone attacks within a week, the ministry said.