Russian missiles pound Ukraine, killing at least 4 civilians
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched its latest barrage of hypersonic and cruise missiles against Ukrainian targets early Monday, striking near the front lines of fighting in the east as well as in central and western parts of the country, officials said. At least four civilians were reported killed and at least 30 injured.
Western officials and analysts had previously warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles in preparation for a strategy of winter bombardment, as bad weather keeps the 930-mile front line largely static after 22 months of war.
Unlike last winter, when the Kremlin’s forces targeted Ukraine’s power grid, Russia is now aiming at Kyiv’s defense industry, they say. But the almost-daily barrages have repeatedly hit civilian areas.
Monday’s attacks struck a string of urban areas, including housing and a shopping mall, across Ukraine.
Russia fired 51 missiles of various types as well as eight Shahed drones at Ukraine, said Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 18 of the cruise missiles and all the drones, he said.
Russia says its defenses downed dozens of drones over Crimea and southern Russia as Ukraine pressed its strategy of taking the war beyond its borders.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called “facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.â€
In the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a woman died in a missile attack outside the city of Kryvyi Rih and 24 people were injured in a strike on the town of Novomoskovsk.
In Kryvyi Rih itself, which is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, more than 20 houses and a shopping mall were damaged in the attack, said regional Gov. Serhii Lysak.
At least four missiles hit Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, injuring one person, said Mayor Igor Terekhov. A woman rescued from the rubble of a building later died, regional Gov. Oleh Sinegubov said. More people may be trapped, he said.
Poet Artyom Kamardin is sentenced to seven years in prison for reading anti-war poems during a 2022 protest. Another man receives a slightly lesser term.
Authorities in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine said two people died as at least six explosions were heard during the morning missile attack.
In Zaporizhzhia, a major southern city along the Dnipro River, two people were injured in a missile strike on a residential district, said regional Gov. Yurii Malashko.
Two people injured in an attack last week died Monday, officials said.
Meanwhile, Russian troops conducted 131 artillery attacks on the Kherson region, killing two people and injuring five, according to Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
Belarus’ leader attended a meeting with children from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, defying outrage over involvement in Moscow’s deportation of them.
Kherson and the surrounding region have been consistently targeted since Russian forces withdrew from the city to the eastern side of the Dnipro in the autumn of 2022.
Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces have made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the last day in several areas along the front line, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Late Monday the governor of the Belgorod region in western Russia, which borders Ukraine, said the city of the same name came under attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 10 rockets fired by Ukraine were shot down while three people were injured by shrapnel, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that some apartment windows were blown out and cars and trucks damaged.
Meanwhile, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in Ukraine’s east, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, said Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the region’s Moscow-appointed government.
The bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries, Pasechnik said.
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The incident comes six days after Russia accidentally dropped munitions over the village of Petropavlovka in the Belgorod region. Last April, another bomb accidentally dropped by one of Russia’s warplanes caused a powerful blast in the city of Belgorod, injuring two and scaring residents.
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