As Zelensky heads to Washington, Russia targets Kyiv
Early morning attack left many running for cover
KYIV — As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine headed to Washington on an urgent mission to rally flagging Western support for his nation, the Russian military on Monday targeted the Ukrainian capital with the most intense salvo of ballistic missiles in months.
Explosions boomed over the snow-covered capital, Kyiv, shortly after 4 a.m.: Missiles racing toward the city at several times the speed of sound had been shot out of the sky even before air alarms could sound and send civilians running for shelter.
The bombardment came hours after a video circulated on Sunday of President Vladimir Putin of Russia sipping Champagne in Moscow and celebrating waning Western support for Kyiv as he declared that Ukraine had “no future.”
All eight missiles aimed at Kyiv, a city of 3.3 million people, were shot down, and 18 Russian attack drones aimed at targets in southern Ukraine were also defeated, the Ukrainian military said. City officials said that at least four people were injured by falling debris in Kyiv.
The attack came just more than two weeks after Russian forces targeted Kyiv with 75 drones — the largest number aimed at the capital since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago — and less than four days after the Russian air force conducted the first major wave of strikes on Kyiv using its heavy bomber fleet in nearly three months.
“This was probably the start of a more concerted campaign by Russia aimed at degrading Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” Britain’s defense intelligence agency said on social media just hours before Monday’s predawn assault, referring to the recent attacks.
The ability of Ukrainian air defense crews, using a variety of systems provided by Western partners, to shoot down nearly all incoming missiles and drones over the past week is a vivid reminder of the vital role Kyiv’s allies play in protecting millions from Russian assaults.
But with a White House request for additional military support for Ukraine stalled in Congress, further US assistance is now in doubt.
The European Union will seek to approve some $50 billion in aid for Ukraine in the coming days, but Hungary has threatened to veto that effort, adding to a feeling of uncertainty that is pervasive across Ukraine.
Putin, who, in the video that circulated Sunday, declared that he intends to maintain his grip on power for the foreseeable future, also said he believes Ukraine will only grow weaker as Russia grows stronger.
“When you don’t have your own foundations, you don’t have your own ideology, you don’t have your own industry, you don’t have your own money,” he said at an awards ceremony Friday at the Kremlin, holding a glass of Champagne in his hand. “You don’t have anything that’s your own. Then you don’t have a future, but we have a future.”
Putin launched his war in February 2022 on the false premise that Ukrainian statehood was fiction, and he has twisted history in an attempt to justify the destruction of a neighboring state that threatens his imperial ambitions.
Fierce fighting continues to rage across the front line as Ukraine increasingly moves into a defensive posture and as Moscow masses troops for another winter offensive.
“The operational situation in the east remains difficult,” Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of Ukraine’s eastern forces, said Sunday. “The enemy does not stop conducting offensive operations along the entire front.”