Russia kills at least 23 in biggest Ukraine airstrikes in nearly 2 months

Russia fired missiles at Ukrainian towns as people slept overnight, killing at least 23 people in the first large-scale airstrikes in nearly two months.

A new air alert sounded in eastern and southern Ukraine and some central regions on Friday evening, with officials urging citizens to ignore the warning.

The wave of Russian missile strikes overnight was the first since early March. Russia has launched such attacks almost weekly for most of the winter, but they stopped when spring arrived, with Western countries saying Moscow was running out of missiles.

In the central city of Uman, about 215 kilometers south of Kyiv, firefighters battled a blaze in a residential apartment building on the top floor. Officials said at least 21 civilians were killed there, including several children.

Rescuers waded through the massive pile of rubble, carrying bodies on stretchers. A man wearing a face mask was crying, and a woman came to comfort him.

“First, the windows were blown, then there was an explosion,” a resident of the apartment building who gave her name only as Olga said as rescue workers dug through the debris. “Everything flew out.”

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.

It is unclear what Russia was targeting in Friday’s attack, although it has regularly attacked civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities during the winter.

The wave of Russian missile strikes overnight was the first since early March. Russia has launched such attacks almost weekly for most of the winter, but they stopped when spring arrived, with Western countries believing Moscow was running out of missiles.

Woman, child killed in Dnipro

Moscow said the target of the night’s attack was the location of Ukrainian reserve forces, which it carried out successfully, preventing them from reaching the front. There is no evidence to support this.

Russia claims it did not intentionally target civilians, but its airstrikes and shelling have killed thousands of people and destroyed towns and cities across Ukraine. Kyiv says that attacks on cities far from the front lines serve no military purpose other than to terrorize and harm civilians, amounting to a war crime.

A 31-year-old woman and her two-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.

Ukraine’s military says it has shot down 21 of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

“This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post along with an image of the ruins. “And it will.”

The capital Kyiv was also rocked by the explosion, with officials reporting that air defense units had destroyed 11 missiles and two drones.

Two people were wounded in the town of Ukrayinka south of Kyiv, officials said.

Explosions were also reported after midnight in the central cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava, and in Mykolaiv in the south, according to Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.

Russia’s defense ministry said the aim of the strike was to prevent Ukraine from bringing reserve troops to the front line.

“Overnight, the Russian Air Force conducted a collective rocket attack using long-range high-precision weapons targeting the temporary deployment site of reserve units of the Ukrainian army,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“The target of the attack was achieved. All the designated facilities were attacked. The advance of the enemy’s reserves to the combat zone was thwarted,” said Konashenkov.

Ukraine counteroffensive expected soon

Ukraine said on Friday it was almost ready to launch a major ground offensive to retake the land it controls.

The battle will be a turning point after Russia’s months-long winter offensive that has failed to make an impact despite being the biggest battle to date. Kyiv is preparing a counterattack using hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles sent by the West, hoping to drive Russia out of nearly a fifth of the country it controls and claims it has annexed.

“As long as there is the will of God, the weather and the decision of the commanders, we will do it,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov said in an online news briefing.

Ukraine is “to a high percentage ready” to start the campaign, he said. The new modern weapon will be the “iron hand”.

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 counterattack.

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.