75 missiles rain down on Kyiv and four other cities as Putin launches revenge attacks

Five Ukrainian cities have been targeted in coordinated revenge attacks a day after Vladimir Putin was urged to retaliate over an explosion on a key Crimea bridge.

Several loud blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital around 8.15am local time in what appeared to be coordinated attacks on several cities.

As well as Kyiv, the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro were also hit by shelling amid calls for revenge from Russian hardliners.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said Russia was trying to wipe his country "off the face of the earth", and confirmed that people had died in the attacks.

The shelling in Kyiv - the first in months - comes after Russian officials said the weekend blast on the bridge connecting Crimea to Russia was caused by a truck explosion. Some analysts have speculated that a missile strike could have caused it.