Russia has launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138 others, authorities said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated Moscow’s aerial campaign in recent weeks in an apparent bid to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of US-made air defence systems and persuade an increasingly pessimistic audience at home that Moscow is prevailing in the war.
Emergency crews digging through the wreckage of apartment buildings pulled out the body of a three-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her eight-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
The attack stretched past dawn with explosions reverberating across cities. Officials said that 16 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.
Residents of the capital had been on edge for days after Russia warned last week that a massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave. None appeared to heed the call and no embassies immediately reported damage on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for more US and European support, describing the massive overnight attack as “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue”.
Mr Putin has stepped up his aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching another of their powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles.
Ukraine’s shortage of air defence systems, in part because of depleted US stocks from the Iran war, has left civilians especially vulnerable to ballistic missiles, even as Kyiv’s defences stop most of Moscow’s drones.
At least 81 people were wounded in the capital, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bath 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,” Ms Salikova said, although they were not hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”
Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the country’s air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, Dnipro and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defence forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.
Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov proclaimed Wednesday would be a day of mourning for the 12 dead in his city. That announcement came 20 minutes before Mr Filatov said another drone had struck a residential building.
Mr Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbour and has not gone according to plan.
Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside Russia that provide vital revenue for Moscow.
That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation”, more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Mr Putin.
US-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences and after the war in Iran grabbed Washington’s attention. Mr Zelensky accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump but Mr Putin refused.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that Tuesday’s bombardment struck military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions.
Ukraine said residential, energy and civilian infrastructure was hit but did not confirm or comment on damage to any military-related sites.
Mr Putin signalled that Russia will not let up its attacks. He said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk on May 22 in the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war “a whole new dimension”.
https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2061710055691391060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Ukraine said the attack in Starobilsk hit a Russian drone pilot training centre.
Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded in at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.
At least four people were killed in Kyiv and 79 people were injured, including three children, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in eight Kyiv districts.
Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district.
“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off,” said Ms Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage on her chin.
“I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.
“Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out onto the street.”
In Kharkiv, at least 19 people were wounded in residential areas in the past two days — including 11 on Tuesday, burying some residents in the rubble.