At least 20 people, including children, were killed when Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles into Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that Russia launched 130 drones, 48 cruise missiles and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles during the nighttime attack. He added that air defense units shot down 161 targets.
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The Ukrainian capital kyiv and Poltava in central Ukraine, the Dnipropetrovsk region in the southeast and Kharkiv in the northeast were at the center of Russian attacks, authorities said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post that Russia fired 70 missiles as well as drones in one of its biggest attacks since Moscow began war in 2022.
“One of the key targets was our energy infrastructure. The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” Zelensky said.
The attacks also damaged residential buildings, industrial facilities and infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.
In Pryluki in the northern Chernihiv region, a Russian missile hit a five-story residential building, regional authorities said. At least 14 people, including four children, were killed and 50 others injured, emergency services said.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed in the densely populated Darnytskyi district 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 Oleksandria, Zelensky said.
“Massive” attack
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a “massive strike” against military-industrial facilities in kyiv and other Ukrainian regions, using high-precision land, sea and air weapons, as well as drones.
The targets included sites where the Fire Point company manufactures and stores Flamingo cruise missiles and medium- and long-range drones in Kyiv, as well as in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kharkiv regions, the statement said.
The attacks also targeted port and ship repair infrastructure in the Odessa region, as well as ships that they believed were used in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ministry added.
“Ukraine was again 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,” he added.
kyiv has been the target of relentless bombardment in recent weeks, with Russian air attacks targeting energy infrastructure, rail and road transport, including bridges that connect the city over the Dnipro River.
Air raid sirens sounded almost constantly, urging residents to hide in basements, shelters and subway stations.
In another post, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had struck four Russian targets in the past 24 hours, including two oil installations and a training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, and were also carrying out a response in the Black Sea.
He called the attacks a “just” response to Moscow’s strikes and added that the affected facilities helped “Russia finance and wage its brutal war.”
Concerns over Black Sea shipping
As the war intensifies and expands, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed Russian President Putin to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea.
A statement from the Turkish presidency said Erdogan reiterated his offer to help facilitate direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, saying secure access to the Black Sea was important to Ankara.
The conversation between Turkish and Russian leaders came after drones struck two commercial ships early Tuesday, as attacks on Black Sea vessels increase amid an escalating war between Russia and Ukraine. One ship caught fire while the other sank.
Bulgarian authorities said they had ended the search after confirming that no survivors had been found from the ship that sank off the country’s coast.
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