Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has visited Kyiv in a gesture of support as Ukraine braces for a major counter-offensive against Russian forces and grapples with regular air strikes.
Trudeau paid his respects at a memorial site in central Kyiv to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting pro-Russian forces since 2014.
NATO member Canada, which has one of the world's largest Ukrainian diasporas, has supplied military and financial assistance to Ukraine during the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022.
Trudeau's trip to Kyiv on Saturday followed a night of Russian missile and drone attacks on targets outside the capital, including Odesa, Poltava region and Kharkiv.
Three civilians were killed in a drone attack on the Black Sea city of Odesa after drone debris fell on an apartment block, the Ukrainian military said.
Air defences in Odesa region shot down eight Shahed drones and two missiles in the latest spate of overnight air strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, a spokeswoman for the southern military command said on Saturday.
"As a result of the air fight, debris from one of the drones fell onto a high-rise apartment, causing a fire," the military official, Natalia Humeniuk, said in a statement.
The emergency services said 27 people, including three children, were wounded, but that the fire had been rapidly put out and 12 people were rescued from the building.
A regional governor in Poltava said Russia fired missiles and attack drones at the central Ukrainian region overnight, inflicting "some damage of infrastructure and equipment" at the Myrhorod military airfield.
The attack that used ballistic and cruise missiles also damaged eight private residential homes and several vehicles, governor Dmytro Lunin said on Telegram messenger on Saturday. No casualties were reported.
Earlier Moscow and Kyiv reported heavy fighting in Ukraine, with bloggers describing the first sightings of German and US armour, signalling Ukraine's long-anticipated counterattack is under way.
With virtually no independent reporting from the front lines and Kyiv saying little, it was impossible to assess whether Ukraine was penetrating Russian defences in its bid to drive out occupying forces.
"We can state for sure that this offensive has begun," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Sochi.
"Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector."
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had discussed tactics and "achievements" with military leaders but gave little away.
"For our soldiers, for all those who at this time are engaged in particularly heavy combat - we see your heroism, and we are grateful for every moment of your lives," he said in his nightly video address.
"Ukraine is as free as you are strong."
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said battles were continuing for Velyka Novosilka and Russian troops were mounting "active defence" at Orikhiv.
In the east, Ukraine has reported advances around Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last month after almost a year of the deadliest ground combat in Europe since World War II.
The initial days of the counteroffensive have been overshadowed this week by a huge humanitarian disaster after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam holding back the waters of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine.
Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate homes flooded in the war zone, vast nature preserves have been wiped out and the destruction of irrigation systems is likely to cripple agriculture across much of southern Ukraine for decades.
Kyiv said at least four people had died and 13 were missing.
