Kyiv: Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones in waves of attacks on Thursday, killing at least 11 people, damaging dozens of buildings and energy facilities in various regions, officials said.
Crowds of people took shelter in Kyiv’s metro stations as an air raid alert sounded at rush hour before Russia unleashed its latest campaign of attacks on the power grid since October, which caused widespread blackouts during the winter.
The missile strikes followed drone attacks overnight, a day after Ukraine secured promises of main battle tanks from Germany and the United States to bolster its troops – a move that infuriated Russian officials.
“Another attempt by a terrorist country to intimidate us with a massive missile strike has recently been defeated, just as all of Russia will soon be defeated,” the president said. Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram.
Air defenses shot down 47 of 55 missiles that included at least one Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, said General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military commander.
Twenty missiles were shot down near Kyiv where a 55-year-old man was killed and two people injured when a missile hit non-residential buildings, officials said.
Zelenskiy said he met with senior commanders on Thursday and discussed ways to counter future missile attacks even more effectively, but gave no details.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, but said critical infrastructure was a legitimate military target.
“It’s such a tragedy for me. I’m telling you, I’m left with nothing?” said Halyna Panosyan, 67, whose home was destroyed in the village of Hlevakha near Kyiv.
“There was an extremely loud strike that startled me. I was in the bedroom…I was saved by the fact that the bedroom is on the other side of the house,” a- she declared.
Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, spokesman for the State Emergency Service, said Thursday’s attacks killed 11 people, injured 11 others and damaged 35 buildings in 11 regions.
In separate statements, officials said one person was killed in the Kryvy Rih region, two in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions and three in the Zaporizhia. An energy worker was also killed.
The military said it shot down all 24 drones launched by Russia overnight. Fifteen of them were shot down around Kyiv where no damage was reported, they said.
As many as six Tu-95 strategic bombers launched long-range missiles after taking off from the Arctic region of Murmansk in northern Russia, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. .
EXPLOSIONS, STOPS
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia’s main target was energy facilities and the strikes were aimed at depriving Ukrainians “of light and heating” with the temperature in Kyiv below freezing.
“Unfortunately, substations have been hit. But the situation in the energy system remains under control,” he wrote on Telegram.
A Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at low altitude, about 30 km (19 miles) from Kyiv.
Two critical energy infrastructures were damaged in the southern region of Odessa, but no injuries were reported.
Impacts were reported in the central Vinnytsia region, while officials in the Kyiv region said critical infrastructure and residences were damaged.
In the capital, Iryna, an accountant who took refuge in a metro station, said she was worried about her husband.
“He was planning on going to a post office in the morning and now he’s not answering his phone,” she said.
An eerie calm descended on a snow-covered Kyiv during the strikes, but life soon returned to normal. Central bank officials announced the conclusions of their meeting on key interest rates during a briefing from the safety of an undisclosed shelter.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power producer, said it was carrying out emergency power cuts in Kyiv, the surrounding region as well as in the Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk regions due to missile attacks.
Crowds of people took shelter in Kyiv’s metro stations as an air raid alert sounded at rush hour before Russia unleashed its latest campaign of attacks on the power grid since October, which caused widespread blackouts during the winter.
The missile strikes followed drone attacks overnight, a day after Ukraine secured promises of main battle tanks from Germany and the United States to bolster its troops – a move that infuriated Russian officials.
“Another attempt by a terrorist country to intimidate us with a massive missile strike has recently been defeated, just as all of Russia will soon be defeated,” the president said. Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram.
Air defenses shot down 47 of 55 missiles that included at least one Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, said General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military commander.
Twenty missiles were shot down near Kyiv where a 55-year-old man was killed and two people injured when a missile hit non-residential buildings, officials said.
Zelenskiy said he met with senior commanders on Thursday and discussed ways to counter future missile attacks even more effectively, but gave no details.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, but said critical infrastructure was a legitimate military target.
“It’s such a tragedy for me. I’m telling you, I’m left with nothing?” said Halyna Panosyan, 67, whose home was destroyed in the village of Hlevakha near Kyiv.
“There was an extremely loud strike that startled me. I was in the bedroom…I was saved by the fact that the bedroom is on the other side of the house,” a- she declared.
Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, spokesman for the State Emergency Service, said Thursday’s attacks killed 11 people, injured 11 others and damaged 35 buildings in 11 regions.
In separate statements, officials said one person was killed in the Kryvy Rih region, two in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions and three in the Zaporizhia. An energy worker was also killed.
The military said it shot down all 24 drones launched by Russia overnight. Fifteen of them were shot down around Kyiv where no damage was reported, they said.
As many as six Tu-95 strategic bombers launched long-range missiles after taking off from the Arctic region of Murmansk in northern Russia, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. .
EXPLOSIONS, STOPS
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia’s main target was energy facilities and the strikes were aimed at depriving Ukrainians “of light and heating” with the temperature in Kyiv below freezing.
“Unfortunately, substations have been hit. But the situation in the energy system remains under control,” he wrote on Telegram.
A Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at low altitude, about 30 km (19 miles) from Kyiv.
Two critical energy infrastructures were damaged in the southern region of Odessa, but no injuries were reported.
Impacts were reported in the central Vinnytsia region, while officials in the Kyiv region said critical infrastructure and residences were damaged.
In the capital, Iryna, an accountant who took refuge in a metro station, said she was worried about her husband.
“He was planning on going to a post office in the morning and now he’s not answering his phone,” she said.
An eerie calm descended on a snow-covered Kyiv during the strikes, but life soon returned to normal. Central bank officials announced the conclusions of their meeting on key interest rates during a briefing from the safety of an undisclosed shelter.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power producer, said it was carrying out emergency power cuts in Kyiv, the surrounding region as well as in the Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk regions due to missile attacks.
