Russia kills at least 12 in biggest Ukraine air strikes in nearly 2 months

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 12 people and hitting residential buildings in central Ukraine, officials said.

Air raid sirens rang out over the capital in the first attack on the city in nearly two months and Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv, according to the Kyiv City Administration.

There were no immediate reports of missiles hitting targets in Kyiv but fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and roads in one neighborhood. There were no casualties.

But in Uman, about 215 kilometers south of Kyiv, two cruise missiles hit a nine-story residential building, killing three people and wounding eight, regional governor Ihor Taburets said. Three children were rescued from the rubble, police said.

“All the glass flew out, everything flew out, even the chandelier fell. Everything was covered in glass,” resident Olha Turina told The Associated Press at the scene. “Then there was an explosion … We had just found our things and ran out,” he said.

Turina, whose husband was fighting on the front lines, said one of her classmates was missing. “I don’t know where he is, I don’t know if he’s alive,” he said. “I don’t know why we have to go through all this. We’ve never bothered anyone.”

A 75-year-old woman died

One of the people killed in the Uman attack was a 75-year-old who was in her apartment in a neighboring building and suffered internal bleeding from the blast’s shock wave, according to emergency personnel at the scene.

Three body bags lay next to the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack. Soldiers, civilians and emergency crews searched the rubble outside for more victims, while residents dragged belongings out of the damaged building.

A 31-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter were also killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional Governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were also injured, and private homes and businesses were damaged.

In Kyiv, the anti-aircraft system was activated, according to the Kyiv City Administration. The air raid sirens started at about 4am and the alert ended about two hours later.

The attack was the first in the capital since March 9.

Missiles are launched from the sea

The missile was fired from an aircraft operating in the Caspian Sea region, according to the Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Overall, he said Ukraine intercepted 21 out of 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 type cruise missiles launched, as well as two drones.

The attack comes as NATO announced that its allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98 percent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during the Russian invasion and war, bolstering Kyiv’s capabilities as it contemplates launching a counter-attack.

Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine’s allies have sent “a lot of ammunition” and trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigade. Some NATO partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, also provide armored vehicles.

“This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to recapture the occupied territories,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

The overnight attacks and comments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a “long and meaningful” phone call on Wednesday in the first known contact since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than a year ago.

Although Zelenskyy said he was encouraged by Wednesday’s phone call and that Western officials welcomed Xi’s move, it did little to improve prospects for peace.

Russia and Ukraine are far from terms for peace, and Beijing – while seeking to position itself as a global diplomatic power – is reluctant to criticize Moscow’s invasion. The Chinese government sees Russia as a diplomatic ally to counter US influence in global affairs, and Xi visited Moscow last month.