At least 18 people have been killed across Ukraine after Russia launched one of the largest aerial attacks of the four-year war overnight.
Russian forces launched 73 missiles and 656 attack drones at targets in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, which added that 40 missiles and 602 drones had been downed or intercepted.
But 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 attack drones struck 38 locations nationwide, it added, with more than 500 emergency service workers drawn own to put out fires and rescue people trapped in flattened homes.
At least six people were killed and 64 others, including two children, were injured in the capital, Kyiv, authorities said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, stressing the urgent need for American Patriot interceptor systems.
Kyiv resident Olha Mudra, speaking at the site of an attack with her six-year-old daughter, said: “We couldn’t understand what was happening – some kind of apocalypse? Everything was covered (with debris), everything in smoke. You could see nothing.”
A further 12 people were killed in the southeastern city of Dnipro, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. He said the bodies of an eight year-old boy and a woman had been pulled from the rubble of a destroyed building. A boy aged three was also among those killed in the attack, he added.
In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were wounded and residential homes, garages and cars were damaged. People were also trapped beneath the rubble of a four-story apartment block.
Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, said she spent the night lying in a bath tub for protection with her three-year-old daughter as blasts reverberated across the city.
“Our window was broken, a cobblestone flew into the children’s room”, Iryna said. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”
Thousands seeking shelter flooded into the the subway system early on Tuesday, witnesses said, some carrying pets, belongings and mattresses, as the sound of defence systems repelling Russian attacks filled the air.
“I only dream that this (war) will end soon, but I’ve lost all hope. I don’t know, it’s hard,” 32-year-old Kyiv resident Valeriia Nafechinko, sheltering in a metro station, said with a heavy sigh. “Sorry for getting emotional.”
Residents in the capital had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.
Zelensky said the attack was “an explicit statement from Russia” that if Ukraine is not protected from missile strikes, “those strikes will continue”.
The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday that its strike was a response to what it called “terrorist acts” against targets inside Russia, and said it had struck a range of Ukrainian military targets.
“Overnight, in response to terrorist acts of the Kyiv regime, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using high-precision long-range air-, land-, and sea-based weapons,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said Russia had used hypersonic missiles and drones to attack seven Ukrainian regions including Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv.
Russia carried out its largest aerial attack over a two-day period in May, launching 1,567 drones at Ukraine, according to president Zelensky. At least 27 civilians were killed over the two days.
Between June 28 and 29 last year, Russia launched more than 500 missiles and drones against Ukraine in what was then assessed to be the largest combined strike series of the war.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the war has now entered “a new paradigm” due to what he called “acts of terror” carried out by Kyiv’s military against civilians.
Moscow has said it is stepping up its strikes on Ukraine in retaliation for what it has described as a devastating Ukrainian drone strike on a student dorm in Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine last month which killed 21 people.
Ukraine denies targeting the dorm and said it was targeting a drone command centre in the area. Both sides deny intentionally targeting civilians.
Peskov said that the peace process to end the war is on hold, but that Russia remains in communication with the United States about the conflict.
He reiterated the long-standing stance that Ukrainian forces must withdraw from regions Russia regards as its own. Ukraine’s Zelensky said in an interview on Sunday he hopes to resume talks before the onset of winter to take account of Kyiv’s improved strategic position.
Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have said the advance of Russian forces has slowed on the ground while Ukraine has intensified a campaign of medium and long-range strikes inside Russia, targeting mainly Russia’s oil industry.
As the war rages on, senior government officials are reported to have warned Vladimir Putin that spending on the conflict is on an unaffordable trajectory.
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