Over Kiev, an air defense missile maneuvers to intercept a rocket SOURCE OF IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
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Over Kyiv, an air defense missile maneuvers to intercept a Russian rocket
By Hugo Bachega and Matt Murphy in Kyiv and London One of the heaviest bombardments since the war started has seen Russian missiles hit cities all around Ukraine.
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported that explosions in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv resulted in the hospitalization of at least three individuals, among them a 14-year-old girl.
In the cities of Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Zhytomyr, blasts were also audible.
According to the Ukrainian military, 69 missiles were fired, 54 of which were shot down by air defenses.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser, earlier claimed that more than 120 missiles had been fired towards infrastructure used by civilians.
Maksym Marchenko, the regional governor of the southern province of Odesa, described a “huge missile attack on Ukraine” after the airstrike, which lasted for about five hours.
Russia allegedly assaulted Ukraine from “different directions with air and sea-based cruise missiles,” according to the Ukrainian Air Force. It further mentioned that several Kamikaze drones had been used.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a presidential adviser, advised citizens to seek shelter as air raid alerts sounded around the nation. He also stated that the air defenses of the nation were in action.
According to the city military administration in Kyiv, debris from missiles that were intercepted caused damage to two homes. According to Mr. Klitschko, air defenses shot down 16 missiles above the city.
Rescue workers inspect a damaged house in the Kyiv area.
SOURCE OF IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Rescue personnel look over a destroyed house in the Kyiv area, image caption
Governor Vitaly Kim reported that five missiles were thwarted by air defenses in Mykolaiv’s southern district.
According to Mr. Marchenko, 21 missiles were destroyed near Odesa. A residential building had been struck by missile fragments, he continued, but there had been no injuries.
Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of Lviv in western Ukraine, noted that multiple explosions had been reported.
Moscow, according to Mr. Podolyak, is attempting to “destroy essential infrastructure and slaughter civilians en masse.”
A top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a missile had struck a resident’s home in a village in the western part of Ivano-Frankivsk but had not exploded. The report cannot be independently verified by the BBC.
a missile that struck a residence used by a civilian in western Ukraine
KYRYLO TYMOSHENKO, image source
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According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a representative of the presidential office, this unexploded missile impacted a residence in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Recently, Ukraine has been subjected to dozens of Russian strikes, which have repeatedly resulted in power outages all around the nation. Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, claimed that the strikes had damaged power plants and described the situation in the Odesa and Kyiv regions as “tough.”
While Mr. Klitschko said that 40% of Kyiv was still without electricity on Thursday, the mayor of Lviv reported that 90% of his city was without power.
Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions both reported power outages.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the chief of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, claimed that Russian “ships and planes from the Black Sea” were responsible for the missiles fired at his city. He stated that power had been turned off in the city as a “precaution.”
Russian forces were poised to launch up to 20 missiles from bases in the Black Sea, Ukraine’s southern command had already warned.
Ukraine claimed to have intercepted 60 of the more than 70 missiles fired by Russian soldiers in one salvo earlier this month.
Moscow has vehemently denied that its missile attacks intentionally target people. Vladimir Putin, however, has acknowledged that Russian forces have been attacking Ukraine’s vital energy facilities.
The acknowledgment came after some world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, said that attacking energy facilities might constitute a war crime.
The Ukrainian government has lobbied with Western politicians to provide it more air defenses, and lately US President Joe Biden agreed to give them a Patriot system.
According to Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Russia will keep attacking civilian infrastructure as long as it can.
He said, “Continuing that thinking, can they do this long?” “No, there aren’t many missiles left,” he answered.
“That many missile attacks can’t be provided by the defense sector at this time. They are currently looking for missile weapons in other nations of the world for this and other reasons.”
A senior US source claimed earlier this month that Moscow has been forced to employ ammunition with a long shelf life and a high failure rate recently.
Additionally, the UK’s envoy to the UN claimed that Russia was attempting to buy hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran in addition to other weaponry.
According to Dame Barbara Woodward, the UK is “almost convinced” that Russia is looking to source weapons from North Korea and other countries that have been subject to harsh sanctions since their own supplies are visibly depleting.