KIEV.- Russia launched ballistic and cruise missiles and Shahed-type drones against six regions of Ukraine Wednesday morning, according to authorities. At least five civilians were killed and nearly 40 more were injured, including a pregnant woman.
The projectiles hit at least three major cities, including the capital kyiv, where the European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, was holding meetings on military aid and financial support for Ukraine. He said he had started the day in a bomb shelter, something he described as part of the “everyday reality” of Ukraine after nearly two years of war.
Ukraine desperately needs Western help amid shortages of ammunition and personnel. Some long-term foreign financing is in doubt, and the effort to close a deal on aid to the country collapsed in the US Senate on Tuesday.
Although the nearly 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) front has barely moved in recent months, Kremlin forces have an advantage in reserves of missiles and artillery ammunition for long-range attacks. Russia has repeatedly used missiles to attack civilian targets during the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that kyiv’s priorities were air defenses and electronic warfare systems.
The Ukrainian military said it intercepted 44 drones and missiles of the 64 launched in the morning attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, said it used long-range precision weapons and drones against Ukrainian factories producing maritime drones, coastal anti-missile systems, rockets and explosives, and stated that all targets were hit.
According to the State Emergency Service, the offensive killed four people in kyiv, which suffered its first shelling in two weeks.
The attacks killed another man in Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine, where damage to public infrastructure and about 20 residential buildings was reported, according to regional governor Vitalii Kim.
Thirty-five people were injured in kyiv, according to the capital’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, including a pregnant woman.
Fires broke out in apartment buildings in several districts of the city, according to Klitschko. Damage to two power lines left 20,000 homes without power on kyiv’s east bank.
It was the first major blackout caused by Russian airstrikes in the capital this winter. Last year, Moscow forces attacked kyiv’s electrical infrastructure in an apparent attempt to leave residents without heat, electricity and running water.
In Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, a 52-year-old woman suffered minor injuries in an S-300 missile attack, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The missiles also hit the Lviv region in western Ukraine, where a fire broke out, according to authorities.
Source: With information from AP
