Russia-Ukraine war: US citizens told to leave Ukraine immediately

The US Embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert late on Thursday urging all American citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately.

The alert, which appeared to be in response to a deadly Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, asserted that large gatherings and organised events "may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his call for Russia to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism.

"No other country in the world represents such a terrorist threat as Russia," Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

"No other country in the world allows itself every day to use cruise missiles and rocket artillery to destroy cities and ordinary human life."

Follow the latest updates below.

03:33 AM

'They knew where they were hitting'

A heavily damaged office building in Vinnytsia - Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Officials said Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea damaged a medical clinic, offices, stores and residential buildings in Vinnytsia, a city 268km (167 miles) southwest of the capital, Kyiv.

Vinnytsia region Governor Serhiy Borzov said Ukrainian air defences downed two of the four incoming Russian missiles.

"It was a building of a medical organisation. When the first rocket hit it, glass fell from my windows," said Vinnytsia resident Svitlana Kubas, 74.

"And when the second wave came, it was so deafening that my head is still buzzing. It tore out the very outermost door, tore it right through the holes."

A rescuer takes a break in Vinnytsia - Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Mr Borzov said 36 apartment buildings were damaged and residents were evacuated. Along with hitting buildings, the missiles ignited a fire that spread to 50 cars in a parking lot, officials said.

"These are quite high-precision missiles," Mr Borzov said. "They knew where they were hitting."

What remains of downtown Vinnytsia after Russia's attack - ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Among the buildings damaged in the strike was the House of Officers, a Soviet-era concert hall.

Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-controlled Russian television network RT, said military officials told her a building in Vinnytsia was targeted because it housed Ukrainian Nazis.

03:22 AM

Zelensky accuses Russia of deliberately targeting civilians

Ukrainian emergency workers and military work at the site of the Russian missile strike in downtown Vinnytsia - ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Ukraine's president has accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in locations without military value.

Volodymyr Zelensky's outrage came after Russian missiles struck a city in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others far from the front lines.

National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said only six bodies had been identified so far, while 39 people were still missing.

Toys are scattered near shattered glass in an apartment damaged in the missile strike on Vinnytsia - Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Three children younger than 10 where among the dead.

Of the 66 people hospitalised, five remained in a critical condition while 34 sustained severe injuries, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

Russia denied targeting civilians.

"Russia only strikes at military targets in Ukraine. The strike on Vinnytsia targeted an officers' residence, where preparations by Ukrainian armed forces were underway," Evgeny Varganov, a member of Russia's permanent UN mission, said in an address to the chamber.