Ukraine’s air force has claimed to have downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv – using Patriot defence systems recently acquired from Western allies.

It is the first known time the country has been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles.

Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said in a Telegram post that the Kinzhal-type ballistic missile was intercepted in an overnight attack on the Ukrainian capital earlier in the week.

It is also the first time Ukraine is known to have used the Patriot defence systems.

“Yes, we shot down the ‘unique’ Kinzhal,” Mr Oleshchuk wrote. “It happened during the night-time attack on May 4 in the skies of the Kyiv region.”

He said the Kh-47 missile was launched by a MiG-31K aircraft from Russian territory and was shot down with a Patriot missile.

The Kinzhal is one of the latest and most advanced Russian weapons. The Russian military says the air-launched ballistic missile has a range of up to 1,250 miles and flies at 10 times the speed of sound, making it hard to intercept.

A combination of hypersonic speed and a heavy warhead allows the Kinzhal to destroy heavily fortified targets like underground bunkers or mountain tunnels.

The Ukrainian military has previously admitted lacking assets to intercept the Kinzhals.

Ukraine has accused Russia of attacking the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut with phosphorus munitions.

Drone footage released by the UKrainian military, shows parts of the city – the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war – ablaze as what is alleged to be white phosphorus rains down. While white phosphorus weapons are not banned in their entirety, but their use in civilian areas is considered a war crime.

Writing on Twitter, Ukraine’s defence ministry said the phosphorus attack targeted “unoccupied areas of Bakhmut with incendiary ammunition” – although it is unclear exactly when the alleged attack took place.

Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering roughly two-thirds of the country.

The alerts extended from the capital Kyiv and regions to the west of it through all regions in the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised by Ukraine for a spring counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory.

Ukraine has reportedly raised $325 million dollars to spend on drones for the counteroffensive through crowdfunding from 110 countries.

The project aims to launch 60 companies to produce attack drones, according to reports.

Preparation for the counteroffensive has also involved training 10,000 drone pilots.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister for innovation, said: “We have recently completed the first part of the UAV pilot training project; 10,000 pilots have been trained during this time. “That is, the Drone Army is about the comprehensive development of the UAV sector, both from the point of view of production and from the point of view of their use.”

The head of the Russian private military company Wagner’s claim that limited munitions which lead to his withdrawal from Bakhmut “could be legitimate”, according to leaked documents.

Prigozhin said on Friday that his troops will leave the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, citing a lack of ammunition supplies that he blamed on Russia’s military command.

The documents, leaked on Discord said military officials “could not decisively” say whether Wagner was receiving munitions because they were not directly distributed by the Russian defence ministry, according to The Washington Post.

The documents also noted that “Prigozhin’s claims could be legitimate.”

Deputy Minister of Defence Gerasimov “reportedly ordered to stop munitions supplies … and also planned military transport flights, which were set to transport munitions” to Wagner’s headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the documents state.

However, as Prigozhin public statements escalated the Defence Ministry “proposed doubling the munitions supply to Wagner,” and in February the ministry said Prigozhin claims about munitions were untrue.

The Wagner chief responded to this by posting pictures of the dead soldiers and a request for munitions directly to Gerasimov. The documents reportedly indicate that Prigozhin was called to a meeting with president Putin as a result of this.

“The meeting almost certainly concerned, at least in part, Prigozhin’s public accusations and resulting tension with Shoygu,” one document said.

Russian forces have claimed to have destroyed two British-made howitzers used by Ukrainian forces in Donetsk.

Russian military spokesman Alexander Gordeyev said a “Lancet loitering munition destroyed an enemy’s UK-made L119 howitzer in the area of Shevchenko.”

The Lancet loitering munition has a range of us to 25 miles and is one of Russia’s most sophisticated weapons.

Leaked files show tensions between the Russian military and the head of the private Russian military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The documents, allegedly leaked on Discord, indicate that the Russian military leadership struggled to respond to Prigozhin’s public statements, The Washington Post reports.

One document stated: “The officials initially noted that, if the MoD was going to try to counter Prigozhin’s public statements, they should find allies of equal status to fight Prigozhin rather than doing so itself.

“However, they were ultimately unsure how the MoD could successfully fight an information war with Prigozhin if the Russian government did not forbid Prigozhin from making public releases,” according to The Washington Post.

Prigozhin personally appealed to president Putin to intervene.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said Ukraine and Western countries backing it were responsible for a car bombing that injured a Russian writer and killed his driver.

A ministry statement, quoted by Russian news agencies, said: “Responsibility for this and other terrorist acts lies not only with Ukrainian authorities, but also their Western patrons, the United States in the first instance…”.

The statement said Washington’s failure to denounce this and other attacks was “self-revealing” for the U.S. administration.

Ukraine’s SBU security service told the state Ukrinform news agency on Saturday it could not confirm or deny involvement in a car bombing that injured a Russian writer or other attacks.

“Officially, we cannot confirm or deny the SBU’s involvement in this or other explosions which occur with the occupiers or their henchmen,” Ukrinform quoted the agency as saying.