Pro-Ukraine fighters shell Russian town near Ukraine border.

Anti-Putin partisans shelled the Russian town of Shebekino, just over four miles from the Ukrainian border, while Russia hit Kyiv in an early morning high-speed missile attack, leaving three dead and 11 injured. The war has shifted towards fresh attacks on civilian centres ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. Western sources said munitions, stocks, and troops trained in close combat and fast infantry manoeuvre are close to being in place at assembly points, allowing Ukraine to launch its counteroffensive within weeks.