Russian missile strikes targeted three Ukrainian cities overnight including the capital, Kyiv, officials said yesterday.
At least five people were killed in strikes that hit the central cities of Dnipro and Uman.
Although Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure last winter, the massive strikes had tailed off in recent months. Kyiv had not been targeted by missiles in more than 50 days.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Most fighting is now taking place in the east for control of the industrial Donbas region, particularly the city of Bakhmut, which has been almost completely destroyed.
Missiles “killed civilians again in the city of Dnipro,” mayor Borys Filatov yesterday wrote on Telegram.
“A young woman and a three-year-old child died,” he added.
Air defence systems were also activated in Kyiv, local officials said.
“After a pause of 51 days, the enemy launched another missile attack on Kyiv,” local air defence forces head Sergey Popko said in a city administration statement.
“According to preliminary data, 11 cruise missiles were destroyed in Kyiv airspace. In addition to the missiles, two drones were shot down,” Popko said.
No casualties or damage to buildings were reported.
Ukraine’s air defence system has been bolstered in recent months by the delivery of Western equipment that has been crucial to the country’s war effort.
In particular, Kyiv received the sophisticated American Patriot systems this month.
While it has not faced missile barrages since early March, the capital was the target last week of an attack by 12 Iranian-made drones, eight of which were shot down without causing any casualties.
In Uman, a central city of 80,000 residents, a video broadcast by Ukrainian media showed a gutted apartment building with rubble strewn around it.
“An enemy missile hit a residential building. Information about the victims is being clarified,” regional police spokesperson Zoya Vovk wrote on Telegram.
Uman was hit by two cruise missiles, with one hitting a residential building and the other a warehouse, regional governor Igor Tabourets said.
“As of 7am, three people were killed and eight were injured,” Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Klymenko said, referring to the attack in Uman.
Ukraine said it has been preparing for months a counter-offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS