Zelenskyy to push allies for more pressure on Russia as new air strikes hit Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will press for stronger pressure on Moscow as he meets allies in Denmark and France on Wednesday after Russian forces launched a sweeping air attack on Ukraine, damaging energy and transport infrastructure.

Russia launched more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles, hitting infrastructure at 14 sites across the country and injuring four railway workers, Ukrainian regional and military officials said.

"These are clearly demonstrative Russian strikes. It is only due to the lack of sufficient pressure, primarily on Russia’s war economy, that this aggression continues," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app. "We will be discussing the need for strong pressure measures with our partners in the coming days."

Zelenskyy said he would participate in a summit with Nordic and Baltic states on Wednesday and then planned to travel to France where he would meet EU and US allies to discuss next steps in "the coalition of the willing" grouping countries that have promised to help Ukraine.

Amid an international push to broker an end to Russia's three-and-a-half-year-old war, Kyiv wants security guarantees to deter any future Russian attacks.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said he expected clarity at Friday's Paris meeting or soon afterward on what the coalition can deliver in terms of guarantees for Kyiv.

US President Donald Trump has indicated the United States could back up any European peacekeeping plan, but would not deploy US soldiers to Ukraine.

Russia has pushed back against any future Western peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military parade in Beijing to mark the end of World War Two, at which Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the world faced a choice between peace and war.

Air raid alerts sounded for hours across Ukraine, with explosions heard in nine of its 24 regions, from Kyiv to Lviv and Volyn in the west, Ukrainian officials and media said.

Ukraine's air force said it downed 430 of 502 drones and 21 of 24 missiles launched by Russia overnight, adding that three missiles and 69 drones struck 14 locations.

Four railway workers in Ukraine's central Kirovohrad region were in hospital after the Russian attack, the state-owned railway said on messaging app Telegram, flagging delays of up to 7 hours to scores of services following damaged facilities.

The railway workers were among five injured in the major rail hub of Znamianka, where 28 houses were also damaged, Ukraine's emergency services said on Telegram.

In northern Chernihiv, the attack cut power to 30,000 consumers and damaged critical civilian infrastructure, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Public transport in the western city of Khmelnytskyi faced "significant schedule disruptions" after the attack, its administration said on Telegram, with the regional governor flagging fires and damage to residential buildings among others.

Firefighters in the Ivano-Frankivsk region were battling flames that engulfed 9,000 sq m of storage facilities, emergency services said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Russia says it is justified attacking civil infrastructure in Ukraine to hinder Kyiv's war effort, and denies intentionally harming civilians although it has killed thousands of them. Ukraine also strikes Russian infrastructure, though on a far smaller scale.