According to the Russian occupation administration, 19 people have been killed by Ukrainian shelling of an occupied village in the southern Kherson region.
The Russian-appointed head of administration for the region, Vladimir Saldo, wrote on Telegram on Friday that a shop full of people had been hit in the village of Sadove. Five people were also injured. He attached photos to his post.
There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
If the figures are correct, it would be one of the most devastating strikes by the Ukrainian army on its own territory under foreign rule in more than two years of Russian aggression.
Sadove is located on the southern bank of the Dnipro River just before it flows into the Black Sea. It is within possible range of artillery or rockets on the Ukrainian-controlled northern bank of the Dnipro. However, there were no reports of firefights in the region.
Saldo spoke of shelling by Western HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. He said that the Ukrainian army had shelled the village a second time when people from the neighbouring houses rushed to help after the first hit.
Rescue workers on the Ukrainian side have repeatedly reported such double strikes: According to them, the Russian army fires again at targets when volunteers there are already trying to rescue people and extinguish fires.
Casualties reported from Luhansk
According to the occupation authorities, four people were killed and around 40 injured in a hit on a residential building in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on Friday.
The shelling targeted barracks and depots on the site of the former military aviation school in the east of the city, as well as a fuel depot, Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, Artem Lysohor, said on Telegram.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, at least three civilians were killed and more than 30 injured in the attack. It was not initially possible to verify that.
The Ukrainian governor wrote that civilian casualties were solely due to the use of Russian air defences over the city.
Four out of five US-made missiles were intercepted, the Russian military said. This too could not be independently verified.
Luhansk is about 80 kilometres from the front line. It has been occupied by separatists controlled by Moscow since the spring of 2014. In the autumn of 2022, Russia annexed the entire Luhansk region in violation of international law and has since conquered large parts of it militarily.
Russian drone strikes
Major Russian drone attacks overnight caused damage in Kiev, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrainian officials on Friday.
Moscow's forces dispatched 53 combat drones and five cruise missiles, although Ukrainian air defences shot down all but five drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram.
However, a fire broke out in an industrial plant near the capital and firefighters were still continuing their efforts to contain it in the morning, the civil defence said. No information was available about possible casualties.
Alongside Kiev, the Russian attacks focused on Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson.
Putin on the nuclear option
Russia is not considering a nuclear strike in its conflict with the West over Ukraine, but the Russian nuclear doctrine is a "living instrument" that could change depending on the circumstances, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
Putin, speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, said his country would only use nuclear weapons in extreme situations and these these have not yet occurred.
"We have no need to think about this issue," the Russian leader told the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Russia could carry out nuclear tests, but for the time being there is no need to do so, Putin said. But that could change if circumstances do.
We should not speak of nuclear war without necessity, Putin said, presenting himself more cool-headed than the moderator of the discussion, veteran Russian political expert Sergei Karaganov, who has advocated for a Russian nuclear strike to deter the West more strongly.
At Friday's event, Karaganov once again tried to push the Russian president in this direction.
Putin said there would not be a major nuclear exchange with the United States, but he questioned the US nuclear umbrella for its European allies. The Russian leader hypothesized that Washington would not want to become embroiled in a strategic nuclear war in response to Russian retaliatory strikes against Europe.
In Ukraine, Russia would achieve its war aims through a slow, planned advance, he said. A faster advance would risk the lives of Russian soldiers.
During Russia's war with Ukraine, which Putin started in February 2022, he has repeatedly tried to dissuade Western states from supporting Ukraine by pointing to Russia's nuclear potential.
Putin repeated his threat to supply Russian weapons to anti-Western states in response to Western arms aid for Ukraine.