Russia launched its second large salvo of missiles at Ukraine in recent days early yesterday, damaging buildings and wounding at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad, but failing to hit Kyiv, officials said.
Air raid sirens began blaring across the capital at about 3:45am, followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.
Eighteen cruise missiles were fired in total from the Murmansk region and the Caspian region, and 15 of them were intercepted, said General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The head of Kyiv’s city administration, Serhii Popko, said all missiles fired at the city were shot down, as well as some drones.
He did not provide further details, but said that more information would be available later.
The attack follows Friday’s launch of more than 20 cruise missiles and two explosive drones at Ukraine, which were the first to target Kyiv in nearly two months.
In that attack, Russian missiles hit an apartment building in Uman, a city about 215km south of Kyiv, killing 21 people, including three children.
In yesterday’s attack, missiles hit Pavlohrad, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 34 people, including five children, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak said.
Seven missiles shot at the city and “some were intercepted,” but others hit an industrial facility, sparking a fire, and a residential neighborhood where 19 apartment buildings, 25 homes, six schools and five shops were damaged, he said.
Missiles also hit three other areas in the region, damaging residential buildings and a school, he said.
Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during its 14-month invasion, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.
Ukraine has recently taken delivery of US-made Patriot missiles, providing improved anti-missile defenses, but it was not clear whether any of them were employed in trying to stop yesterday morning’s attack.
Ukraine has also been building up its mechanized brigades with armor supplied by its Western allies, who have also been training Ukrainian troops and sending ammunition, as Kyiv prepares for an expected counteroffensive this spring.
Undermining Russia’s logistics is one of the elements of preparation for the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman said on Sunday, after a fire destroyed a large Russian fuel depot in Crimea.
While not directly admitting to striking the fuel depot in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, Ukraine’s military command said that “a fire” destroyed 10 oil tanks with a capacity of about 40,000 tonnes.
The city’s Moscow-installed governor blamed Ukraine and later said that the fire had been put out before a disaster occurred.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, said the fire has cause a great deal of “anxiety” in the Russian military.
“The fact that the enemy’s logistics are undermined ... this work is preparatory for the broad, full-scale offensive, which everyone expects,” Ukrainian media cited Humeniuk as telling national television on Sunday.
“Therefore, the enemy feels that his resources are undermined and begins to maneuver,” she said.
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