RUSSIAN forces targeted Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, as part of an overnight bombardment felt across the country, local officials said on Saturday.

A ballistic missile was shot down as it approached the capital, said Serhii Popko, head of the city military administration. No-one was injured.

The Ukrainian air force later confirmed an Iskander-M ballistic missile was used in the attack, the first attempted missile strike on Kiev in almost two months.

Elsewhere, the strikes killed four people in three regions: two in Kherson, one in Dnipropetrovsk and another in Zaporizhzhia, local officials reported.

The Ukrainian military said today that Russian forces have increased attacks in eastern Ukraine in a bid to gain ground near two key front-line cities.

Moscow’s troops have begun a push to regain territory near Bakhmut, the eastern mining city that was the site of the war’s bloodiest battle before falling into Russian hands in May, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces said.

Ukrainian troops had recaptured the heights over Bakhmut and made some advances to the city’s west, north and south since Kiev launched its summer counteroffensive.

“Toward Bakhmut, the Russians have become more active and are trying to recapture previously lost positions ... Enemy attacks are being repelled,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in a Telegram update this afternoon.

Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive has so far resulted in only incremental gains and heavy losses, with Ukrainian troops struggling to punch through Russian lines in the south.