Large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine leaves four dead and dozens injured
Russia has launched a wave of large-scale strikes against Ukraine, firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the capital was the main target, but other areas were also hit, leaving at least 83 injured.
Four people were killed in and around kyiv, explosions were heard across the region overnight on Sunday and damage was reported to residential buildings and schools.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Oreshnik hypersonic missile was used in the strikes, which it described as a response to Ukraine’s “attacks on civilian infrastructure.”
President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of carrying out a deadly strike on a student dormitory in the city of Starobilsk on Friday, in which 21 people were killed.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said it carried out an attack near Starobilsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine on Friday, but claimed it had hit an elite Russian military unit.
Sunday’s nighttime Russian strikes followed warnings from Zelensky that Russia was preparing an attack and may be preparing to use the Oreshnik missile, which reportedly travels at more than 10 times the speed of sound and is impossible to intercept.
Zelensky said in a Telegram article on Sunday that Russia launched the Oreshnik missile against the town of Bila Tserkva in the kyiv region.
Ukraine’s presidential office later said it would not confirm this, saying work was underway to determine exactly what had been used.
More than 50 sites in Kyiv reportedly attacked [Reuters]
The Ukrainian Air Force said it detected 90 missiles and 600 drones at 6 p.m. local time on Saturday.
The attack hit more than 50 sites in kyiv, according to the Ukrainian National Police. Apartment buildings, shopping centers as well as emergency services and police buildings were reportedly affected.
Zelensky said a water facility was also attacked.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in the city itself, and 30 people, including two children, were hospitalized.
One person was killed after a nine-story residential building was hit in the central Shevchenko district and a fire broke out on the upper floors.
In the same neighborhood, a strike near a school’s air raid shelter blocked its entrance with debris, trapping several people inside.
Emergency services rushed to several damage sites across the city, putting out fires, clearing debris and treating the injured.
Residential buildings hit during night strikes in Kyiv [Reuters]
In the kyiv region surrounding the capital, two other people were also killed, according to regional head Mykola Kalashnyk.
He called the attack “deliberate terrorism against peaceful people,” adding that “emergency services are working everywhere.”
Apart from kyiv, the regions of Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Odessa, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr were also attacked, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
