Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and around a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and injuring about 60 people, Ukrainian officials said, in one of Moscow’s latest major attacks.
Ukraine had expected the assault, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning a day earlier that intelligence agencies had determined Russia was preparing a “massive” strike.
Despite the advance warning, Ukrainian forces were unable to prevent the barrage from causing widespread deaths and destruction, says AP.
A Russian strike destroyed an apartment building in Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region, killing 15 people, among them four children, and injuring around 50, authorities said.
Deaths were also reported in three other Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, according to Zelenskyy, who said the Russian forces had sought to hit Ukraine “painfully and demonstratively”.
The scale of the destruction highlighted the difficulties facing Ukraine as it tries to defend its cities against Russia’s ballistic missiles and a new generation of jet-powered drones being deployed in increasingly intense bombardments.
Ukraine is seeking Patriot missiles from around the world, with supplies already under pressure because of the war in Iran.
Zelenskyy said Russian ballistic missiles remained Ukraine’s “greatest challenge” and that additional air defence systems were now a “vital necessity”.
In Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, two people were killed and seven others wounded, said Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the regional military administration. Rescue operations were continuing.
“That is exactly what the enemy is counting on. For us to be afraid to fall asleep. To let our children out of our sight. To plan anything. So that everyone thinks: next time it could be my address,” Diakivnych said.
Without sufficient ammunition for its US-made Patriot air defence systems, Ukraine is unable to intercept all of Russia’s ballistic weapons. Kyiv is also racing to develop a new generation of interceptors capable of catching the high-flying, jet-propelled drones now being used by Moscow.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out a “massive strike” overnight against industrial facilities involved in producing and storing missiles and drones across Ukraine.
It also said port and ship-repair facilities in the southern Odesa region had been targeted, along with ships carrying cargo intended for the Ukrainian military.
The attack coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday.
Ukraine has responded to Russia’s aerial campaign with its own long-range drone and missile strikes against Russian oil infrastructure, Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
He said Ukrainian forces had targeted two oil facilities and a training ground in Russia’s Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claims.
Zelenskyy also indicated that Ukraine had carried out an attack in the Black Sea, posting images purportedly showing an oil tanker on fire in waters near the Russian city of Sochi.
The images could not be independently verified.
Some Russian online media outlets also published them late on Tuesday, while unconfirmed reports said the vessel was carrying oil from Novorossiysk to India and had been attacked by Ukrainian sea drones.
The latest strikes come as Russia and Ukraine continue a long-range aerial war while their ground forces remain largely deadlocked, more than four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
The sustained aerial campaign is inflicting damage on Russia, but the consequences could be far more damaging for the smaller Ukrainian economy and its civilian population
US-led efforts to secure peace have offered little prospect of immediate relief.
The possibility of holding low-level technical talks remains under discussion, while Putin continues to pursue the invasion on the assumption that pressure will eventually force Ukrainians to give way and that Kyiv’s Western allies will eventually lose their resolve, Western analysts say.
“Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of terror,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Trying to make daily life impossible for Ukrainians who want to live in peace.”
