Three people were killed and scores of others wounded in a large-scale air Russian attack on Ukraine’s western region of Lviv and the northwestern region of Volyn, officials said.

Three people were killed and several hospitalised in Lutsk after a business enterprise was hit, Yuriy Pohulyaiko, governor the Volyn region of which Lutsk is the administrative centre, said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Volyn region borders NATO-member Poland to its west.

There were no casualties in Russia’s air attack on the western region of Lviv, according to preliminary information, but more than 100 residential houses were damaged, 500 windows broken and a kindergarten playground was destroyed.

“Many missiles were shot down, but there were also hits in Lviv,” city mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that orders were given to evacuate at least one burning apartment building.

Sadovyi posted a video standing at a crater in front of a multi-storey building with all windows blasted out and scattered debris from what appearted to be a playground.

Ukraine’s Air Force said that its forces had destroyed 16 of at least 28 Russia-launched air and sea-based missiles. It was not immediately clear how many missiles were launched at Lviv and Volyn.

Volodymyr Zelensky has met with brigades in Donetsk to “speak with warriors” directly.

The president of Ukraine shared the video on Twitter on Monday.

Mr Zelensky tweeted: “Today, I visited our brigades in the Donetsk region to speak directly with our warriors.

“Third and 5th Assault, 80th Airborne, 57th Motorized, 22nd and 24th Mechanized, 26th Artillery, 92nd Mechanized.

“I was honored to thank each of them for their bravery and results for Ukraine.”

Western pressure on Ukraine’s counteroffensive to achieve a “Hollywood”-style breakthrough against Russia was “unrealistic” from the outset, and Kyiv’s allies must be prepared for the war to “drag on far longer” than they imagined, analysts have said.

With rains expected to muddy the battlefield in Zaporizhzhia as soon as September, the “odds are getting longer” on the “triumphant breakthrough” many in the West were hoping for, experts told The Independent.

Facing heavily fortified Russian defences, including vast minefields, Ukraine has been forced to broaden its focus away from the frontlines to wider attacks, which are having “real successes” in degrading Russia’s military capabilities and zapping the morale of its increasingly stretched forces.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged letters on Tuesday pledging to develop ties into what Kim called a “long-standing strategic relationship”, Pyongyang’s state media KCNA said.

The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, including artillery shells, shoulder-fired rockets and missiles. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied any arms transactions.

This comes as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday that this week’s summit with the leaders of the United States and Japan will set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation in the face of North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The local government in Prague said Monday that it “unequivocally” opposes a scheduled performance by Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko in the Czech capital while Russia wages war on Ukraine.

Deputy mayor Jiri Pospisil, who oversees culture in the city, said that all the members of Prague’s governing coalition shared the same view.

“All the parties perceive that at a time when the war (in Ukraine) has been ongoing and we read every day about the victims of the Russian attacks in the media, it is insensitive for such a singer to perform here in Prague,” Mr Pospisil said.

The UK’s Royal Air Force and the Dutch defence ministry said on Monday they scrambled fighter jets when Russian bombers were tracked flying toward the airspace off Scotland and the Netherlands, respectively.

The pair of Russian warplanes spotted in each location were flying in international airspace.

Britain’s air force said two Typhoon fighters were launched from RAF Lossiemouth to monitor the Russian bombers as they flew north of the Shetland Islands off Scotland. The Russian Tu-142 Bear-F and Tu-142 Bear-J, which are used for maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare, were in airspace that is part of Nato’s northern air policing area, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

Russian aircraft entering the UK’s zone of international airspace can pose a hazard to other planes because they often don’t communicate with air traffic control or broadcast their coordinates, the military said.

The Typhoons stayed with the Russian planes until they were out of the UK’s area of interest, according to a statement from the lead pilot, who wasn’t named.\

Denmark’s air force said its fighter jets identified the Russian bombers flying over the Baltic Sea toward the Netherlands. The Dutch defence ministry said it then scrambled two of its own F-16 fighters.

“This doesn’t happen often, but today’s incident demonstrates the importance of rapid deployment,” the ministry said. “The F-16s are on standby 24 hours a day and can take off within minutes and intercept an unidentified aircraft.”

Russia launched three waves of drones and missiles against the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa, officials said Monday, though the Ukrainian air force said it intercepted all the airborne weapons fired during the nighttime attacks.

Falling debris from the interceptions of 15 Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles damaged a residential building, a supermarket and a dormitory of an educational facility in the city, Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said.

Two employees of the supermarket were hospitalised, Mr Kiper said. Video showed a huge blaze at the store during the night and, the next day, the large building’s charred and mangled wreckage.

Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, rebuked critics who suggest a two and half month-old counteroffensive aimed at dislodging Russian forces from occupied areas of Ukraine should be advancing more quickly.

The Ukrainian army does not intend to engage in conspicuous “large-scale battles” against the Russians as the operation moves forward, Mr Podolyak said on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The goal, he said, is a piecemeal and systematic destruction of “the capabilities of the enemy army: its logistics, technical potential, officers and personnel.”

Central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina won plaudits for her handling of the economy in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion, but she may be being lined up as a scapegoat ahead of next March’s presidential election, as the weak rouble and stubbornly high inflation hurt consumers.

Popular pro-Kremlin television presenter Vladimir Solovyev, whose Rossiya 1 shows are watched by millions of Russians, launched into an aggressive, expletive-ridden criticism of the central bank late last week.

“…every other country is laughing at us, at our rouble being one of the three weakest currencies, thanks to the ‘genius’ policy of the central bank,” he said.

The population is feeling the pinch, too, according to Russians Reuters spoke to in Moscow on Monday.

“Of course, rising prices affect us, regular citizens, a lot,” said Ivan, a Moscow resident. “Because our salaries aren’t growing, and it takes a bite out of (what’s in) our wallets.”

Vladimir Putin, in his response to a letter from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, also vowed to bolster bilateral ties.

“I am sure that we will strengthen the bilateral cooperation in all fields for the two peoples’ well-being and the firm stability and security of the Korean peninsula and the whole of Northeast Asia,” Putin said, according to KCNA.

The letter exchange comes as the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to discuss security cooperation over North Korea, Ukraine and other issues at a trilateral summit on 18 August at Camp David.

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in a letter to Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged stronger ties with Russia, Pyongyang’s state media KCNA said.

The letters mark the 78th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, which is also celebrated as a national holiday in South Korea.

In his letter to Mr Putin, he said the two countries’ friendship was forged in World War II with victory over Japan and is now “fully demonstrating their invincibility and might in the struggle to smash the imperialists’ arbitrary practices and hegemony,” KCNA said.

“I am firmly convinced that the friendship and solidarity … will be further developed into a long-standing strategic relationship in conformity with the demand of the new era,” Kim was quoted as saying in the letter.

“The two countries will always emerge victorious, strongly supporting and cooperating with each other in the course of achieving their common goal and cause.”