Russia Launches Huge Wave of Missile Strikes Across Ukraine, Leaving 12 Dead
Russia has launched a massive wave of missile strikes across Ukrainian cities, including the capital, in one of the biggest attacks on the country this year. At least 12 people were killed and 75 injured after Russian strikes on residential buildings in Kyiv and Odesa and other cities in the west and south on Friday morning, while Ukrainian officials said a shopping centre and maternity hospital were hit in the central city of Dnipro.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Russia had launched approximately 110 missiles in the attack. Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal, Zelenskiy said in a statement on his social media channels.
A maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, multistorey residential buildings and private homes, a commercial storage [facility] and a parking lot [were hit]… We will surely respond to terrorist strikes. And we will continue to fight for the security of our entire country, every city, and every citizen. Russian terror must and will lose.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia used hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including ones that are extremely hard to intercept.
Ukraine’s air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat on state television described the scale of the Russian attack as massive, adding: We have never seen so many targets on our monitors at once.
The Ukrainian army said military facilities were also targeted.
Loud explosions were heard early on Friday morning in the northern city of Kharkiv, with bombs pounding the city bordering Russia for at least three hours. The number of casualties could rise, with people thought to be trapped under rubble.
On Thursday, Zelenskiy had thanked the US for releasing the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under the existing authorisation, as uncertainty surrounds further aid to his war-torn country. Congress this month failed to approve $50bn (£39bn) in fresh security aid for Ukraine as negotiators fell short of a deal, with Republicans demanding a domestic border crackdown.
Zelenskiy has said any change in policy from the US – Kyiv’s main backer – could have a strong impact on the course of the war.
After Friday’s attack, the Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak called on the west to provide his country with more support. We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror, Yermak wrote on Telegram.
Western and Ukrainian officials have previously warned that Moscow was building up a large missile stockpile that it was planning to use this winter to target the country’s energy system.
Russia has amassed a large missile stockpile ahead of winter, and we see new attempts to strike Ukraine’s power grid and energy infrastructure, trying to leave Ukraine in the dark and cold, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told reporters last month.
We must not underestimate Russia. Russia’s economy is on a war footing, he added.
Last year millions of people were plunged into darkness when Russian strikes repeatedly pounded the power grid. On Friday, the Ukrainian energy ministry reported power outages in four regions after the air attack.
Russia’s attack came after Ukraine’s military destroyed a Russian warship stationed in the Crimean port city of Feodosia, prompting a rare acknowledgement from the Kremlin of a military loss.
Ukraine said its air force destroyed the Novocherkassk landing ship, with Zelenskiy quipping on social media that the vessel had joined the Russian underwater Black Sea fleet.
