Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
By Kosta Gak, Victoria Butenko, Helen Regan for CNN
A man carries a dog in his arms among rubbles outside a multi-storey residential building which was damaged following a Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv.
Photo: ROMAN PILIPEY
Russia launched a large-scale deadly attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Tuesday, damaging residential buildings, authorities said, as part of a broad offensive on targets across Ukraine.
At least 13 people were killed in the overnight assault that Ukraine’s military said involved more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles, including advanced hypersonics.
Four people were killed in Kyiv and nine in the central city of Dnipro, with more than 100 wounded across the country, according to Ukrainian officials.
In the capital, the attacks damaged several residential and commercial buildings, sparking fires and burning cars, authorities said.
Kyiv’s air defenses appeared to be less active during a ballistic missile strike around 7am local time, with CNN producers in the city center hearing ongoing explosions, but not the firing of counter-air systems. A strong smell of smoke permeated the air in the city on Tuesday morning.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the overnight assault as a “massive enemy attack”.
There are fears people remain trapped under the rubble of a multi-story apartment block in Podilsky district that partially collapsed after a “double tap” Russian strike, according to Klitschko.
An explosion during drone and missile attacks in Kyiv.
Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY
Images from Ukraine’s State Emergency Services show a fire engulfing a badly-damaged house as firefighters doused the flames, and the windows and facade of what appears to be the front room of another debris-filled home completely blown away.
“Throughout the night, the enemy launched massive attacks on the Kyiv region using drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. Our peaceful towns and villages were once again under attack,” said Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor.
At least 65 people were wounded across the city, Ukrainian officials said, in strikes that caused power outages and sent residents scrambling to shelters as air raid sirens sounded.
A suspected missile strike hit a 24-story residential building in Shevchenkivskyi district, sparking a fire, and a blaze broke out in a nine-story building in Podil after debris struck the roof, the mayor said. Elsewhere in the city, Russian strikes damaged a clinic and debris fell on the grounds of a kindergarten, Klitschko added. In Bucha, three homes, warehouse facilities and non-residential buildings were damaged, Kalashnyk said.
Russian attacks were also reported in Dnipro, where 35 people were wounded, and Kharkiv, where 14 were wounded including a child, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Among those killed in Dnipro was Maj. Anton Yarmolenko, deputy chief of the Fire and Rescue Unit, who was responding to a rescue call at the time, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said.
Altogether, Russia fired 656 drones and 73 missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukrainian Air Force figures, which said the vast bulk of the drones and just over half of the missiles were shot down.
Olha Mudra walks with her 6-year-old daughter, Nataliia, near the multi-storey residential building where they live, which was damaged during massive Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv.
Photo: ROMAN PILIPEY
Russia fired eight of its advanced hypersonic Zircon missiles toward Ukraine, the air force said, but none were intercepted. Experts have previously told CNN the Zircon missiles are near impossible to shoot down.
The main targets of the strike were Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava, according to the air force statement.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its “massive strike” targeted Ukrainian defense, military, fuel and transport facilities in several key regions, in retaliation for what it said was “terrorist acts committed by the Kyiv regime,” Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday.
The assault involved “high-precision long-range weapons,” including drones and “hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” launched from the air and sea, according to TASS.
Russia said it intercepted 148 Ukrainian drones, but said an oil refinery in Krasnodar had caught fire after a drone attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday had reiterated his warning to citizens of a possible large-scale Russian strike.
The warning came after Russia said last week that it was beginning “systematic strikes” against military facilities in Kyiv, according to Russian state media.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry had also warned foreign nationals, including staff of diplomatic missions and international organizations, to leave Kyiv “as soon as possible.”
The Russian strikes also came as Ukraine has expanded attacks on Russian oil assets.
Zelensky said in his nightly address Monday that between between January and May, Ukrainian troops have struck 15 Russian oil refineries, knocking out 40 percent of Russia’s main oil refining capacity. CNN cannot independently verify the report.
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