Russia attacked Kyiv with missiles for the first time in almost a month, and President Vladimir Putin said he would hit other Ukrainian targets if the west supplied the country with longer-range missiles.

In Sievierodonetsk, the principal battleground in the east where Russia has recently focused its forces, Ukrainian officials reported that a counterattack had recaptured half of the city.

Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had traveled to Lysychansk and Soledar, located south of Sievierodontsk. The trips were the closest he had gotten to the frontline since the Russian invasion began on February 24 and were his only excursions outside the capital.

"Victory is what you all deserve - this is the most crucial factor. However, not at any cost "Zelenskiy, sporting his signature khaki T-shirt, advised Ukrainian troops in a Sunday night video.

Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk are in the region of Luhansk, whereas Soledar is in the area of Donetsk. Both sites include the Donbas, the industrial core of Ukraine, which Russia claims to be "liberated."

One victim of the attack in Kyiv was hospitalized, but there were no immediate reports of fatalities. After Russia attacked two remote districts on Sunday, dense smoke was seen from a great distance.

Ukraine said the strike targeted a railcar maintenance facility, while Russia claimed it destroyed tanks transported to Ukraine by Eastern European nations.

The head of the Ukrainian railway, Oleksandr Kamyshin, confirmed that four missiles had struck the Darnytsia train car maintenance plant in eastern Kyiv. Still, he stated that there was no military equipment at the site.

The attack was a shocking reminder of the war in Kyiv, where normalcy had virtually returned since March when Russian forces were expelled from the city's outskirts.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said on Twitter that the missile attacks on Kyiv had only one objective: to murder as many people as possible.

According to Ukraine, Russia attacked Kyiv with long-range air-launched missiles launched from heavy bombers far away from the Caspian Sea.

Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power station operator stated that a Russian cruise missile had flown "critically low" over the facility.

'Cracking them like Nuts'

The incident on Sunday was the first significant assault on Kyiv since late April when a journalist was killed by a rocket.

In what it calls a campaign to undermine Ukraine's military infrastructure and disrupt Western weaponry shipments, Russia has recently focused its destructive power on the front lines in the east and south while occasionally striking elsewhere.

TASS reported on Sunday that Putin warned the West that Russia would strike additional targets if the United States began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.

Last week, the United States said that it would provide Ukraine with new, upgraded medium-range rocket launchers.

In an interview with Russian state television, Putin stated that the rockets promised by the United States thus far were equal to armaments Ukraine already possessed from the Soviet era.

If Washington were to send longer-range rockets, he warned, "we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting" He disregarded the impact of Western drones, stating that Russia has "cracking them like nuts."

Britain has stated that it will provide Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems capable of striking targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) distant.

Continue to storm Sievierodonetsk

Ukrainian forces control half of Sievierodonetsk on the battlefield and continue to push the Russians back, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai.

"They will attempt to simply level everything. They lack alternative strategies "Gaidai stated on the Russians.

The general staff of the Ukrainian military stated on Monday that "the occupiers continue to storm Sievierodonetsk," firing mortars and artillery systems against Ukrainian troops.

The assertions could not be verified independently. Both sides claim to have caused significant casualties in Sievierodonetsk.

Gaidai reported that 98 persons escaped from the Ukrainian-held portion of the Luhansk province on Sunday.

On Sunday, a journalist for Russian official media said that Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov had been killed in eastern Ukraine, adding to Moscow's spate of high-ranking military losses.

Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's western Kursk region, reported this morning that Ukrainian forces fired on the border settlement of Tyotkino, targeting a bridge and some local businesses. No early reports of casualties were received.

Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers reportedly withstood seven attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, damaging four tanks and downing a combat helicopter.

Monday, Ukraine's military general staff stated that Russian forces are performing "conducting intensive artillery and mortar shelling of our positions" in the Kharkiv region of Donetsk.

It was reported that Russia was targeting civilian infrastructure in multiple cities, and Moscow denies it targets civilians.

In Donetsk, Russian forces have been marching north of the Siverskiy Donets river in preparation for what Ukraine expects to be an assault on the large city of Sloviansk.

Pope Francis described war as "the negation of God's dream" in a Sunday address in Rome.