UMAN: Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones on Ukraine early on Friday, killing at least 22 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the centre of the country, officials said. Three children were among the dead. The missile attacks included the first one against Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in nearly two months, although there were no reports of any targets hit.
The city government said Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv. The strikes on the nine-story residential building in central Ukraine occurred in Uman, a city located around 215 km south of Kyiv.
The Ukrainian national police said 17 people were wounded and three children were rescued from the rubble. Nine were hospitalised.
Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas. Ukrainian officials and analysts have alleged such strikes are part of a deliberate intimidation strategy by the Kremlin.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the latest long-range air-launched cruise missiles launched overnight were aimed at places where Ukrainian military reserve units were staying before their deployment to the battlefield. “The strike has achieved its goal. All the designated facilities have been hit,” Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Defence Ministry’s spokesperson, said.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said it was nearly ready to launch a huge ground assault to retake occupied land. Kyiv is preparing a counter-offensive using hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West, hoping to drive Russia out of the nearly a fifth of the country that it occupies and claims to have annexed.
“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleskii Reznikov said.
“This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated.