Dan Peleschuk, Yuliia Dysa and Andrii Perun
Kyiv: Russia struck Ukraine with the largest number of ballistic missiles in a single attack since the start of its full-scale war, Kyiv’s acting foreign minister said on Sunday.
“Russia unleashed the largest number of ballistic missiles since the start of the war – around four dozen – in a brutal terrorist attack on the Ukrainian capital, killing and injuring people,” Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. “We urge appropriate and strong responses. We need devastating pressure on Moscow to end this terror.”
Kyiv’s air force said Ukrainian air defences shot down 18 out of 41 missiles launched by Russia overnight. It said 23 missiles and 10 drones had hit 20 locations during the attack, which was aimed mainly at the capital Kyiv, and that 108 out of 125 Russian drones had also been downed.
The attack began at around 1.30am (9.30am AEST) and continued for several hours, with explosions echoing across the capital. The missiles killed at least one person and wounded 13 others as fires broke out across the city, officials said.
The strikes sparked fires in five districts of the city, damaging residential buildings, office and industrial sites, a dormitory and vehicles, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Rescue workers pulled four people from a burning home in the Sviatoshynskyi district, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district they rescued residents from a burning three-storey building. A fire in a non-residential building was also contained. Firefighters also responded to blazes in the Solomyanskyi, Desnianskyi and Dnipro districts.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram app that fires broke out at a dormitory, an apartment building and a supermarket. Several non-residential buildings and warehouses were struck in the attack, while parked cars and office buildings were on fire in several districts, he said.
At one location, workers picked through smouldering debris and doused bombed-out apartments. A resident who identified himself as Vlad said he had been inside his apartment when a blast tore off his balcony door, which smashed him in the head.
“My grandmother lives with me, and she can’t walk. How could I run away and leave her behind?” he said.
Russian forces have stepped up ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks, as Ukraine runs low on critical US-designed air defences to shoot them down.
US President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to grant Ukraine licences to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, potentially bolstering Kyiv’s defences against Russian ballistic missile attacks. However, the details and timeline for implementing the decision remain unclear.
Earlier, Ukrainian drones damaged warehouses operated by Wildberries, one of Russia’s largest e-commerce marketplaces, in the Moscow region and in the town of Kotovsk in the Tambov region about 480 kilometres to the south-east, according to local authorities. Seven people were killed and another 25 injured in the Tambov strike, Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said, according to Interfax.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Wildberries warehouses were used to facilitate the supply of sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment by Russia. Ukraine also hit 13 vessels in the Black and Azov Seas with drones.
The New York Times reports that protesters took to the streets in Kyiv last week over a shake-up in military leadership. The demonstrations started on Thursday in support of Mykhailo Fedorov, the 35-year-old defence minister and champion of Ukraine’s successful drone warfare program who was sacked by President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
The protesters continue to show support for the military as a whole but have directed growing anger at General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the army’s top commander, who clashed with Fedorov over the role of robots in the army.
Reuters, AP, Bloomberg
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