Russia launched lots of of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine overnight, killing no less than 18 civilians and wounding greater than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.
The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings. Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a 3-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her 8-year-old son within the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.
The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities. Officials said that 12 people were killed in Dnipro and 6 in Kyiv.
Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a large aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to depart the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the decision.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support, describing the huge overnight attack as “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine isn’t protected against ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will proceed.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow’s aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching a robust hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for less than the third time within the four-year war.
The Russian strategy seeks to make the most of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, with international stocks depleted by the Iran war. That has left civilians especially vulnerable to the Russian ballistic missile barrages, whilst air defenses stop many of the attack drones.
Mother, daughter shelter in bathtub
At the least 64 people were wounded within the capital, emergency services said. Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bath for defense along with her 3-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated across the town.
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“Our window was broken. A cobblestone flew into the youngsters’s room,” Salikova said, though they weren’t hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”
Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, based on the country’s air force, with the predominant targets including Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro, and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.
Putin seeks to vary the narrative
Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn’t gone based on 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 Putin.
U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the perimeters made no progress on key differences and after the Gulf and Middle East grabbed Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin refused.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a press release that the military launched a “massive” strike with long-range precision weapons on military-industrial facilities within the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsk and Sumy regions.
Putin signaled that Russia won’t let up its attacks. He said Tuesday that Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a school dormitory in Starobilsk within the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war “an entire recent dimension.”
Ukraine said it hit a Russian drone pilot training center in Starobilsk.
Man thrown out of Kyiv apartment by blast
Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded at no less than 38 locations across Ukraine, based on regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.
At the least 4 people were killed in Kyiv and 63 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 of their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district in the course of the attack.
“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, the whole lot fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off,” said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage wrapped round her chin. “I ran out into the front door and commenced calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.”
“Now I actually have nowhere to live, the apartment is totally destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You possibly can step straight from the room out onto the road,” she said.
In Kharkiv, no less than 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.
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