A Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 21 people across Ukraine overnight, including two children, marking one of Moscow’s largest assaults in recent months.
An eight-year-old boy and three women pulled from the rubble of an apartment block were among 15 people killed in Dnipro, regional officials said. In the capital Kyiv, six people were killed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said civilian infrastructure and energy facilities had been targeted across the country, with more than 100 people injured.
Russia’s defence ministry said the strikes had been a response to previous Ukrainian attacks, saying in a statement that the “strike objectives” had all been achieved.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was carrying out the “systematic strikes” it had pledged after accusing Kyiv of a deadly attack on a student dormitory in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine in late May.
Kyiv said it had hit a Russian military unit.
“This practice will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, claiming the strikes were targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure.
Zelensky had warned a “massive strike” was possible in his nightly video address on Monday, and urged residents to pay special attention to air raid alerts.
On Tuesday morning, he said Russia had launched 656 strike drones and 73 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and anti-ship – in the overnight attack.
“We urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems”, the Ukrainian president said, referring to interception hardware used to intercept Russian missiles.
Patriot missiles have been in short supply, exacerbated by the US and Israeli war against Iran.
Credit: bbc.com
