‘Massive’ Russian strikes kill at least 30 in Ukraine
KYIV—Russia launched a massive air attack over Ukraine on Friday, killing at least 30 people and wounding scores across the country in the fiercest assault since the first days of the war nearly two years ago.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, said Ukrainian officials.
The attacks—during which a Russian missile reportedly passed through Polish airspace—triggered international condemnation and fresh promises of military support to Ukraine, which has been fighting off invading Russian troops since late February 2022.
“Today Russia hit us with almost everything it has in its arsenal,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
‘Record number’Ukraine’s military estimated Russia had launched 158 missiles and drones on Ukraine and 114 of them had been destroyed.
Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat told AFP that this was a “record number” of missiles and “the most massive missile attack” of the war, excluding the early days of constant bombardment.
Russia tried to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses across most major cities, launching a wave of Shahed attack drones followed by missiles of numerous types fired from planes and from Russian-controlled territory.
Interior minister Igor Klymenko announced on Telegram: “As of now, 30 people have been killed and more than 160 wounded as a result of Russia’s massive attack on Ukrainian territory in the morning.”
Strike on BelgorodLate Friday, Russian authorities said a strike on a residential building in Belgorod, 80 kilometers north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, had left one dead and four wounded.
A total of 13 missiles were intercepted over the Belgorod region while 32 drones were downed overnight in the Bryansk, Kursk and Oryol regions north of the border and in the Moscow region, according to the Russian defense ministry.
The United Nations condemned the attacks and said they must stop “immediately.”
“Regrettably, today’s appalling assaults were only the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Russian Federation,” said UN assistant secretary general Mohamed Khiari. —AFP
