Zelensky: Russia wants to wipe out Ukraine's cities

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has charged that Russia wants to destroy Ukraine's cities through its relentless aerial attacks.

"The Russians are exploiting the weather - the cold spell - and trying to hit as many of our energy facilities as possible," Zelensky said on Friday in his evening video message from Kyiv.

Most recently, the capital Kyiv was hit, before that Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kryvyi Rih and Odessa.

"Russia's main tactic is to try to completely shut down cities," Zelensky asserted.

He demanded that all city administrations be prepared and protect their citizens. In the cities under attack, electricity, water and heating supplies have largely failed.

The attacks showed that Moscow does not care about diplomacy and the United States' peace efforts, Zelensky said.

The use of the Oreshnik medium-range missile in western Ukraine on the outer border of the EU and NATO was "an equally great challenge for Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest and many other capitals," Zelensky added.

On Thursday evening, the Russian army fired the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile at a target in the Lviv region. It was the second use of this weapon, which has a range that can reach Western Europe, in the Ukraine war.