Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading to Belarus, fuelling Ukrainian fears he intends to pressure his ally to join a new offensive, as Russian drone attacks target key infrastructure in Kyiv.
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Officials in Kyiv have warned for months that neighbouring Belarus could join Russian forces and serve as a launching pad for a renewed ground attack on the Ukrainian capital.
"Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus - is our constant priority," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after a meeting on Sunday of Ukraine's top military command.
"We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios."
Putin heads to Belarus on Monday for his first visit in more than three years with the Kremlin describing it as a broad "working visit" with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Belarus - one of Russia's closest allies - allowed its territory to be used as a launchpad for Moscow's February 24 invasion of Ukraine but has not joined the fighting directly.
Lukashenko has said repeatedly he has no intention of sending his country's troops into Ukraine.
Russian troops moved to Belarus in October will conduct battalion tactical exercises, the Russian Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian defence ministry.
On Monday, Russian air raids hit "critical infrastructure" in and around Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
Air defence systems destroyed about 15 of 20 drones directed at the capital, they said.
Emergency power cuts were re-introduced in Kyiv after the attacks, electricity provider YASNO said.
Zelenskiy on Sunday again called for Western nations to beef up Ukraine's air defences after weeks of Russian air strikes targeted the country's energy network as a freezing winter settles in.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
Zelenskiy told Ukrainians the armed forces were holding firm in the town of Bakhmut - scene of the fiercest fighting in the country for many weeks as Russia attempts to advance in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.
"We control the town even though the occupiers are doing everything so that no undamaged wall will remain standing," he said.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed administrator of the portion of the Donetsk region controlled by Moscow, said Ukrainian forces shelled a hospital in Donetsk city, killing one person and injuring several others.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
Putin casts what he calls Russia's "special military operation" as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood up to a Western bloc, led by the United States, seeking to capitalise on the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by destroying Russia.
Kyiv and the West say Putin has no justification for what they have decried as an imperial-style war of occupation.
Moscow said on Monday Russian and Chinese forces would hold joint naval drills between Wednesday and December 27, involving missile and artillery firing in the East China Sea.
While the drills have been held annually since 2012, Moscow has sought to strengthen its political, security and economic links with Beijing in recent months and sees Chinese President Xi Jinping as a key ally in an anti-West alliance.
Australian Associated Press
