Russian attacks kill 11
RUSSIAN forces have fired another rash of missiles and self-exploding drones at several parts of Ukraine.
They caused the first attackrelated death of the year in Kyiv even though air defences shot down many incoming projectiles.
And Oleksandr Khorunshyi, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service spokesman, said in comments on television yesterday that 11 people have been killed in strikes on 11 regions.
The attacks adhered to Russia’s recent pattern of launching widespread strikes about every two weeks.
But the wave of weapons also came a day after Germany and the United States upped the ante in Russia’s 11-month war by promising to send high-tech battle tanks to Ukraine and allowing other allies to do the same. Germany’s defence minister said yesterday its tanks could arrive in Ukraine within about two months.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed by falling rocket debris, the capital’s first such death since New Year’s Eve.
Two others were hurt, the former professional boxer said.
The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defences shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to the area.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said yesterday’s volley involved 55 missiles, of which 47 were intercepted.
Self-exploding drones swept in overnight before the missile strikes, in what a spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Defence Forces said appeared to be a Russian attempt to overwhelm or distract Ukraine’s air defences.
As air raid sirens echoed across the country, civilians, some pulling dogs on leads, poured into subway stations, underground car parks and basements to seek shelter.
It was the first such barrage of Russian firepower across the country since January 14.
Russia has carried out massive strikes on power stations and other infrastructure since early October, part of a strategy to try to hamper Ukrainian forces and put civilians in the cold and dark this winter, before what many experts predict could be a springtime offensive as more conscripts reach the battlefields.
Ukrainian energy minister Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities were targeted again yesterday by Russian forces “trying to cause a systemic failure in the energy system of Ukraine”.
He said some energy facilities have been hit, resulting in emergency outages, and repair teams were working to restore power supply as quickly as possible.
The regional prosecutor’s office in Zaporizhzhia said three people were killed and seven hurt in a strike on an energy facility.
Maksym Marchenko, governor of southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, said energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in his and several other regions, causing “significant problems with electricity supply”.
The regional administration in the nearby Kherson region, where Ukrainian troops recaptured the regional capital in November, said Russian shelling has killed two and hurt five over the past day.