At least 11 killed as Russia launches ‘massive’ attack on Ukraine

Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched 130 drones, 48 cruise missiles and ballistic missiles in overnight attack.

At least 11 people have been killed as Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday that Russia launched 130 drones, 48 cruise missiles, and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles in the overnight attack on Ukraine, saying air defence units downed 161 targets.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired 70 missiles and also drones in one of its biggest attacks since Moscow launched the war in 2022.

“One of the key targets was our energy infrastructure. The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” Zelenskyy said.

The attacks also damaged residential buildings, industrial facilities, and infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.

Kyiv and Poltava in central Ukraine, the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv in the northeast were the focus of the Russian attacks, authorities said.

In Pryluki, in the northern Chernihiv region, a Russian missile slammed into a five-storey residential building, regional authorities said. At least five people were killed and 20 wounded, while there were fears that more residents could be buried under the rubble.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two people were killed in the densely populated Darnytskyi neighbourhood in a fire caused by an air attack.

Two people were killed when missiles hit high-rise buildings in Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, while two others died in Oleksandriya, Zelenskyy said.

‘Massive’ attack

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces carried out a “massive strike” on military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions, using high-precision land-, sea-, and air-launched weapons, as well as drones.

Targets included sites where the company Fire Point makes and stores Flamingo cruise missiles and medium- and long-range drones in Kyiv, as well as the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Kharkiv, it said.

The attacks also targeted port and ship-repair infrastructure in the Odesa region, as well as vessels it said were being used in the interests of Ukraine’s armed forces, the ministry added.

“Ukraine has once again been hit by Russian missiles throughout the night,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said on Telegram.

“Another sleepless night, another act of terror, after which people still have to plan their working day despite everything,” he added.

Kyiv has come under relentless bombardment in recent weeks, with Russian air attacks on energy infrastructure, rail and road transport, including the bridges that connect the city over the Dnipro River.

Air raid sirens have sounded almost constantly, urging residents to take cover in basements, shelters, and subway stations.

In a separate post on X, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces hit four Russian targets over the last 24 hours, including two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara, and Astrakhan regions, as well as carrying out a response in the Black Sea.

He called the attacks a “just” response to Moscow’s strikes, and added that the facilities hit helped “Russia finance and wage its brutal war”.