Ukraine says it is nearly ready to launch a huge ground assault to retake occupied land, after Russia bombarded cities as people slept overnight, killing at least 25 civilians in its first large-scale air strikes in nearly two months.

The war is coming to a crucial juncture after a months-long Russian winter offensive that gained little ground despite the bloodiest fighting so far.

Kyiv is preparing a counteroffensive using hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West.

It wants to drive Russia out of the nearly one fifth of Ukraine that it occupies and claims to have annexed.

“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleskii Reznikov told an online news briefing on Friday.

Ukraine was “to a high percentage ready”, he said, with new modern weapons to provide an “iron fist”.

In the central town of Uman, firefighters battled a blaze at a residential apartment building struck on an upper floor by a Russian missile.

Officials said at least 23 civilians were killed there, including four children.

Rescue workers clambered through a huge pile of smouldering rubble, carrying a body away on a stretcher.

A man wearing a face mask sobbed as he watched, and a woman came to comfort him.

“No one is left,” said Serhii Lubivskyi, 58, who survived inside a flat on the seventh floor.

He was rescued by firefighters from the balcony where he escaped with his wife after the explosion blocked their front door.

The wave of Russian missile attacks overnight was the first since early March, when Western countries said Moscow was running out of missiles.

Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians

Moscow said the targets of its overnight strikes were locations of Ukrainian reserve troops, which it had struck successfully, preventing them from reaching the front.

It supplied no evidence to support this.

In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a missile struck a house, killing a two-year-old child and a 31-year-old woman, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

The capital Kyiv, central cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava, and Mykolaiv in the south were also rocked by explosions.

In Donetsk a Russian-installed official said seven people, including a child, had been killed by Ukrainian shelling that hit a minibus.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the number of casualties or who was to blame.

Ukrainian officials yet to respond to request for comment

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

“This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post alongside images of the wreckage. “And it will.”

Russia has been fortifying its territory for months in anticipation of Kyiv’s planned assault, widely expected once warmer weather dries out Ukraine’s notorious sucking black mud.

Kyiv and its Western military backers hope a push by thousands of Ukrainian troops trained at Western bases, using hundreds of newly-donated tanks and armoured vehicles, will shift the dynamics of the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was reported on Friday to have signed a decree giving people living in parts of Ukraine under Moscow’s control a path to Russian citizenship. It means those who decline or who do not legalise their status could be deported.

Ukraine and Russia snapshot:

FIGHTING

• The war is at a crucial juncture after the Russian winter offensive gains little ground and Kyiv prepares a counteroffensive using hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West.
• Russia said its strategic bombers had carried out what it called high-precision missile strikes on Ukrainian army reserve units overnight to prevent them from getting to the frontline.
• Ukraine said victims included several children killed in strikes on homes.
• The Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk city said seven people were killed when Ukrainian shelling hit a minibus.

DIPLOMACY/POLITICS

• Russian Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who was sanctioned by the West and dubbed the “Butcher of Mariupol” by the EU, has been removed as deputy defence minister, reports said.
• Russia rejected a US embassy request to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in response to Washington’s refusal to grant visas to a group of Russian journalists.
• The Kremlin played down the idea that Russia might be preparing to carry out a nuclear weapons test, saying all nuclear states were abiding by a moratorium.
• A United Nations committee said it was deeply concerned about human rights violations by Russian forces and private military companies in Ukraine, including enforced disappearances, torture, rape and extrajudicial executions.
• Mr Putin signed a law allowing for naturalised Russian citizens who “threaten national security” to be stripped of their citizenship, RIA news agency reported.

ECONOMICS

• EU governments agreed to extend by a year the suspension of duties and quotas on imports from Ukraine to help its economy.

-AAP