An unprecedented assault. Russia targeted Ukraine, particularly the capital kyiv, with as many as 600 drones and 90 missiles overnight from Saturday to Sunday alone, the Ukrainian air forces said.
“690 air attack aircraft of various types” were detected by the Ukrainian Air Force. A total of 55 missiles and 549 drones were intercepted, she said on Telegram. Among the weapons used was “an intermediate-range ballistic missile” Orechnik fired from Kapustin Yar, in the Astrakhan region of Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga accused Russia of having carried out “one of the biggest terrorist attacks on kyiv”. At least four people were killed and more than a hundred injured in Ukraine in these intense nighttime Russian bombings. The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced that the death toll rose to two and 77 injured, including two children, in the capital.
Fires and damage were reported in residential buildings, but also in a school, a business center, a market, a shopping center, a supermarket, garage cooperatives, warehouses and a building materials hypermarket across the capital. Emergency services responded to more than 40 sites in kyiv affected by fires and destruction, spread across almost all districts.
“They are really crazy”
Ukraine’s National Emergency Service added that the Chernobyl National Museum was also damaged in the attack, only a month after it reopened following lengthy restoration work. The National Art Museum, the kyiv Opera, the Foreign Ministry building and the studio of the German channel ARD and DW media also suffered damage, according to these institutions.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, Russia also struck the town of Bila Tserkva, south of kyiv, with an Orechnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. Images broadcast online captured the characteristic moment of impact, the fragmentation of the warhead into several submunitions, followed by a series of powerful explosions.
“Three Russian missiles hit a water supply infrastructure, a burned market, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he (Vladimir Putin, Editor’s note) to lance are Orechnik against Bila Tserkva. They are really crazy,” commented Volodymyr Zelensky.
