Russia launched over 620 drones and long-range missiles in another massive overnight attack, numbers which come close to the record-setting assault from last week, which consisted of over 700 projectiles.

Ukraine authorities said the aerial attack killed at least six people, and that it highlights the urgent need for the country to obtain more anti-air defense systems from allies, including Patriots from the United States.

"Russia continues its strategy of terror, striking specific cities and regions with concentrated attacks," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

He described that many of the drones were decoys or "simulators" which are designed to distract and overwhelm defense systems, making it harder to intercept the actual assault kamikaze drones.

Zelensky further said that included in the overnight aerial attack were 26 cruise missiles, and that some half of all the UAVs were Iranian-make Shaheds.

Hits on southwestern Chernivtsi region saw two people killed and 20 injured, even though this area is far from the front lines of battle with Russian forces.

Another distant place, Lviv in the far western Ukraine, saw a dozen wounded from the attacks, and in the east two people died in Dnipropetrovsk and three were injured in Kharkiv.

President Trump within recent days has ramped-up weapons shipments to Kiev, after the Pentagon had announced a stoppage to arms transfers, which the White House sought to dismiss as a misunderstanding.

Zelensky in his latest remarks further touted progress on a "multi-level agreement" for new American Patriot missile systems and interceptors.

All of this is happening despite US defense officials having long sounded the alarm over diminishing US stockpiles. Many Patriots were used in the latest conflict involving Iran and Israel, and now the US looks to give more away to Ukraine.

The Trump administration has shifted in recent days to claiming that defending Ukraine is 'America first' - which is the absolute opposite messaging the White House was advancing earlier in Trump's term.