AP :
Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Kyiv early Friday, killing four people, starting fires and scattering debris as the sound of explosions boomed across the city, Ukrainian authorities said. A pregnant woman was among at least 34 people injured.
Emergency crews responded to multiple strikes during the night, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration. Russia used at least 430 drones and 18 missiles in the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia has waged an aerial campaign against Ukraine since its all-out invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing.
Friday’s aerial assault, which also targeted Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, was mostly aimed at Kyiv, where drones and missiles smashed into high-rise apartment blocks, according to Zelenskyy.
It was “a specially calculated attack to cause as much harm as possible to people and civilians,” he said in a post on Telegram.
Moscow denies targeting civilian areas, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying Friday it carried out an overnight strike on Ukraine’s “military-industrial and energy facilities.” Ukrainian officials scoff at those claims, showing repeated damage to homes and public buildings.
The attack was the biggest on Kyiv in almost three weeks. Most recent Russian aerial attacks have aimed at electricity infrastructure around the country ahead of the bitter winter months.
Ukraine used its American-made Patriot air defense systems to repel the attack and shot down 14 missiles, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader has pleaded with foreign supporters to send more of the sophisticated systems.
In the Odesa region, Russian drones struck a busy street in Chornomorsk, killing two people and injuring seven others, regional military administration chief Oleh Kiper said.
‘My hair was on fire’ Kyiv residents told of harrowing escapes and near misses in the dead of night.
Mariia Kalchenko said it was a miracle she survived after her building was hit.
“I didn’t hear anything, I just realized that my hair was on fire,” the 46-year-old volunteer rescue dog handler told The Associated Press.
She turned on her flashlight and saw that her dog had moved away in fright. “I turned around and saw that there was no wall, and there was a neighbor’s apartment, the neighbor was screaming, there was no door, and the flames were going from the front door into the apartment,” she said.
Oleh Hudyma, 59, said she became aware of the attack and intended to go to a bomb shelter but she wasn’t quick enough.
“I got up, got dressed, went out, and there was an explosion. I couldn’t hear the (drone) engine running, just an explosion, flames, everything flew,” she said. “I was in the kitchen and just fell to the floor.”
City authorities warned that power and water outages are possible.
Eight of the capital’s 10 districts reported damage. Emergency crews fought fires in apartment blocks, debris from explosions was strewn across yards and cars parked in the streets were set ablaze.
In the wider Kyiv region, Russian strikes damaged critical infrastructure and private homes, injuring at least one civilian, the head of the regional military administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said. A 55-year-old man in Bila Tserkva suffered burns and was hospitalized, he said. Fires broke out in private houses in the capital’s suburbs.
The strike came as European Union officials warned this week that Ukraine must continue to crack down on corruption following a major graft scandal that has put top nuclear energy officials under scrutiny. But they also offered assurances that aid will continue to flow as Kyiv strains to hold back Russia’s invasion.
Russia says it shot down 216 Ukrainian drones
