Vladimir Putin has been dealt a hammer blow in his assault on Ukraine after a surprise Russian air attack on cities across the country in the early hours of this morning was shot out of the sky.

The aerial barrage, comprising numerous missiles and almost 50 unmanned drones, had targeted cities and regions as far from the Russian border as capital Kyiv and the western oblast of Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine's military confirmed.

The embattled country's air force managed to shoot down all five missiles, as well as 48 out of 53 drones - a 91 per cent success rate.

But some of the air attacks found success; in Kyiv, Russian drones and missiles sparked a fire at an industrial facility, according to the region's governor, with emergency services scrambling to put out the blaze early on Friday morning - though, crucially, no casualties have been reported.

Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the under-fire Kharkiv region, said the drone attack knocked out windows in at least three residential buildings, and damaged shops, a post office, and other local infrastructure.

Elsewhere, as many as 11 drones were shot down in Khmelnytskyi, three drones were destroyed over Dnipropetrovsk, and one in Kirovohrad, according to the regions' local governors.

And the Ukrainian military said seven drones were shot down over the southern Odesa region, with three more downed in Kherson and two more in Mykolaiv.

Speaking on national TV, Ukraine's Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk confirmed the attack did not damage any energy infrastructure - a long-running target for Russian attacks.

MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE:

Russia loses 1,200 troops in just 24 hours in one of Putin's most catastrophic days so far of Ukraine warUkraine copies Putin and recruits prison convicts to bolster army in face of renewed Russian onslaughtPutin loses even MORE Black Sea vessels as Ukraine's drones target speedboats and ferries

Ukrainian outlet the Kyiv Independent claimed that 12 of Ukraine's oblasts had come under fire from the Russian assault - including Sumy, Luhansk, Chernihiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia in their reporting, five more than confirmed by news agency Reuters, but omitting Kirovohrad.

But later on Friday, Russia took verbal aim at Ukraine and its key ally the US for hitting civilian targets on Russian soil.

Putin's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of using US-supplied HIMARs rockets to shell civilian targets in Russia's Belgorod region and of being responsible for the deaths of women and children.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova set out the allegation at a news conference in St Petersburg, adding that fragments of the HIMARs rockets would serve as proof of what had happened.

She said statements by Washington giving the green light for such attacks amounted to "a confession...for the murder of children and women in the Belgorod region".

President Joe Biden is set to meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky today in France in order to present him with a $225million (£176million)-valued arms package following yesterday's D-Day anniversary events.

It will be the pair's first face-to-face talks since Zelensky visited Washington in December 2023, when the two wrestled with internal Republican opposition to more Ukraine aid.

And they will meet again next week at a G7 summit in Italy as rich nations discuss using Russian assets frozen after the Ukraine invasion to provide a mega $50billion (£39billion) aid package for Ukraine.