At least 11 dead, scores wounded as Russia launches major attack across Ukraine - VIDEO
Russian drones and missiles struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 100, authorities said, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has stepped up its own attacks this year on Russian oil facilities. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Last week, the Kremlin warned that it intended to carry out “systematic strikes” on targets in Kyiv in response to a drone attack on a dormitory in Ukraine’s Russian-held Luhansk region, which killed 21 people. Ukraine has denied responsibility for that strike.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Photographs from Kyiv showed large explosions and plumes of smoke rising over high-rise buildings, where overnight strikes killed four people and wounded 65, including children, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
“We couldn’t understand what was happening — some kind of apocalypse?” said Olha Mudra, speaking at the site of one strike while standing with her six-year-old daughter Natalia.
"Everything was covered (with debris), everything in smoke, you could see nothing," she added, as she stood in front of a destroyed residential building and damaged cars.
A suspected missile strike on a 24-storey apartment building triggered a collapse, leaving people probably trapped under the rubble, Klitschko added, while a nine-storey apartment block was among other buildings set ablaze by suspected missile debris.
"In the Obolon district, cars are burning after being struck by falling missile debris," Klitschko said. "There are also fires at two locations in open areas, including one near a kindergarten."
Thousands seeking shelter flooded into the Kyiv 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."
More explosions were heard in the capital after dawn, a Reuters witness said.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 656 drones and 73 missiles overnight, mainly targeting Kyiv. In a statement on Telegram, the air force said 40 missiles and 602 drones had been downed or neutralised.
An air force spokesman said the attack included eight Zircon hypersonic missiles, likely the largest number of those missiles used by Russia during the war. The Zircon has a range of 1,000 km (625 miles) and travels at nine times the speed of sound, according to Moscow.
Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out a "massive strike" on Ukraine's defence industry facilities using high-precision long-range weapons.
By Nijat Babayev
Similar news
