Russia launched missiles and more than 200 drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, including an Indian citizen, as Kyiv endured a sixth consecutive day of heavy aerial attacks.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Russia launched another large-scale aerial assault on Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than a dozen others as Kyiv endured its sixth straight day of heavy attacks.
Three children were among the wounded, according to local authorities.
The sustained bombardment, which began last week, represents an unprecedented run of consecutive aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than 4½ years ago.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow is attempting to wear down the civilian population by repeatedly disrupting daily life with missiles and drones.
The latest attack coincided with the beginning of Ukraine’s new school year, as several million children returned to classes Tuesday while Russian forces struck Kyiv and eight other regions with cruise and ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones, glide bombs and artillery.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 12 people were killed in the attacks, including an Indian citizen.
Civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were struck in several districts of Kyiv, authorities said. Eight people were killed in the capital and three others in the surrounding Kyiv region.
Six of those killed in Kyiv were employees of the state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, according to company chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi. He said a ballistic missile struck a railway depot and other company facilities.
Nearly 350 emergency personnel were deployed across Kyiv and the surrounding region as rescue crews searched damaged apartment buildings, removed debris and worked to free residents trapped beneath rubble, Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that its military carried out what it called a “massive strike” overnight using “precision-guided weapons” and long-range drones.
Moscow said its targets included facilities involved in manufacturing and storing weapons as well as other military-related infrastructure.
Ukraine’s air force said the Russian operation began at approximately 6 p.m. Monday and included ballistic, cruise and anti-radar missiles along with 218 drones and decoys.
About one-third of the drones were jet-powered, according to the air force. Those aircraft are more difficult to intercept than slower propeller-driven drones.
The primary targets were in the Kyiv and southern Odesa regions, Ukrainian officials said.
In Odesa, located along the Black Sea, the attack damaged civilian infrastructure and wounded one person, regional head Oleh Kiper said.
Two residential buildings were damaged, and a textile factory caught fire.
Russian forces also struck the Orlivka international ferry crossing near Ukraine’s border with Romania, according to Kiper.
Farther north, strikes in the Zhytomyr region caused fires at an industrial facility and a warehouse, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said.
The renewed bombardment came as Ukraine continued its own long-range drone campaign against targets inside Russia.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses had intercepted 516 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 Russian regions, the Black Sea and Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
One of the Ukrainian attacks triggered a fire at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region, Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said.
Ust-Luga, more than 800 kilometers, or roughly 500 miles, from Ukraine, is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals and has been targeted repeatedly by Ukrainian drones this year.
Ukraine has increasingly directed long-range strikes against Russia’s energy infrastructure as part of an effort to disrupt an oil sector that remains a major source of revenue for the Russian economy.
Tuesday’s Russian assault continued a six-day stretch of attacks on Kyiv while simultaneously demonstrating the expanding reach of Ukraine’s drone operations deep inside Russian territory.
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