One of Vladimir Putin's feared £75million Tu-95MS 'Bear' nuclear bombers has been severely damaged in an overnight strike on a Russian airbase, Ukraine has revealed.

Satellite images show a plane with a badly damaged right wing at the Engels-2 airbase in central Russia's Saratov region following the strike by Ukraine's SBU security service.

It is the second Tu-95MS hit at Engels-2 in six weeks by Ukraine and a major blow for the Russian leader.

The planes are regularly used to bomb Ukraine with conventional missiles, but it is also part of the Russian nuclear strike force.

'In Engels, Russia, the Alpha unit of the SBU struck a Tu-95MS missile carrier,' said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

'It is these aircraft that carry out attacks on Ukraine. Thank you for your accuracy to all our soldiers - this is all a response to their attacks. The Russians must feel what their war is like.'

Today's strikes also set ablaze a major oil refinery in Russia's Yaroslavl region.

Other Tu-95MS planes were damaged in last year's Operation Spiderweb – in which drones were released from trucks close to airfields in Russia.

However, because the aircraft are no longer manufactured, they are difficult to repair.

Soviet-era Tu-95s first flew some 70 years ago, but remain a mainstay of the Russian nuclear force. They are the world's only propeller-powered strategic bombers.

Meanwhile, Russia launched waves of drones at Ukraine's capital Kyiv and surrounding region on Friday, damaging warehouses and homes in a second consecutive day of strikes that Ukrainian officials said were an attempt to derail daily life for millions of residents.

At least one person was killed outside Kyiv, said governor Tymur Tkachenko, adding that 14 warehouse premises, 16 homes and three blocks of apartment buildings had been damaged.

There were frequent air raid warnings in the capital on Friday morning, a day after a missile and drone attack lasting several hours that targeted major retailers and consumer logistics in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine.

Those strikes continued on Friday, ⁠destroying sorting centres belonging to the Ukrainian courier firm Nova Poshta near Kyiv and in the northern city of Sumy, the company said.

In the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone tore into the home-improvement store Epicenter, wounding at least four people, governor Ivan Fedorov said on Friday.

Ukraine's state emergency service said Russia had attacked the Kyiv region 38 times during the past 24 hours, and warned residents not to approach areas where firefighters were still tackling blazes.

Friday's attacks appeared aimed at prolonging the snarl-up sparked by strikes a day earlier, which delayed trains across several regions and left passengers stranded for long periods.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, a branch of the National Security Council, warned of the danger of so-called unmanned aerial vehicles - or drones - adding: 'The enemy is ‌launching small ⁠numbers of jet-powered UAVs in waves with the aim of paralysing Kyiv.

'The aim - to wear down the air defences and the population.'

Ukraine's state railway said on Friday that delays were gradually decreasing, but that the effects of frequent strikes and air-raid alerts ⁠would be felt for at least another day.

Kyiv spent nearly 15 hours under air-raid alerts on Thursday, according to Ukraine's foreign ministry.

Russian forces also attacked a shopping centre in the city of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, said mayor ⁠Ihor Terekhov - the second such attack there in two days.

In recent weeks, Russia and Ukraine have stepped up strikes on consumer logistics and online retailers to dent each other's economies and weaken their ⁠respective war efforts.

Also on Friday, a Russian drone attack destroyed a warehouse in Kyiv region for a major book retailer that shipped thousands of titles per day, the company said.