Russian missiles target Ukrainian cities, killing at least 7 people and wounding dozens
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles struck three Ukrainian cities Tuesday, including the country’s two biggest, killing at least seven people and wrecking apartment buildings after Moscow shunned any deal backed by Kyiv and its Western allies to end the almost two-year war.
The barrage included more than 40 ballistic, cruise, antiaircraft and guided missiles, officials said, in what the United Nations said appeared to be the heaviest bombardment since early January, when hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were killed. Ukraine’s air force, whose defenses include Western-supplied systems, said it intercepted 21 of the missiles.
The attacks keep Ukrainians on edge while the 930-mile front line has barely budged. Both sides’ inability to deliver a knockout punch on the battlefield has pushed the fighting toward trench and artillery warfare. Analysts say the Kremlin’s forces stockpiled missiles at the end of last year to press a winter campaign of aerial bombardment.
Attacks in late December and early January were an “alarming reversal†of a trend earlier last year that saw a drop in civilian casualties from Russian strikes, the U.N. said.
More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Tuesday’s onslaught in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, killed six people and injured 57, including eight children, the U.N. said. The missiles damaged about 30 residential buildings and shattered hundreds of windows in icy weather, regional Gov. Oleh Sinegubov said.
Russia used S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles in the attack, he said.
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A five-story apartment building appeared to have been directly hit by several missiles around dawn, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a statement. The temperature in the city was 19 degrees Fahrenheit, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said.
Kharkiv, about 18 miles from the border with Russia, has often borne the brunt of Russia’s winter campaign of long-range strikes that commonly hit civilian areas.
Tuesday’s attack injured at least 20 people in four districts of Kyiv, the capital, including a 13-year-old boy, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Officials corrected initial reports that a civilian had been killed there, saying the wounded person was hospitalized on life support.
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A missile also killed a 43-year-old woman and damaged two schools and eight high-rise buildings in Pavlohrad, an industrial city in the country’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian presidential office said.
In Balakliya, in the Kharkiv region, an 88-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman were rescued from the rubble of a house after Russian shelling, the office said.
A Russian drone attack in the southern city of Beryslav killed a 69-year-old man riding a motorcycle.
There appeared to be scant chance of an end to the war anytime soon. Russia’s foreign minister defied the U.S. and other Ukraine supporters at a United Nations meeting Monday, ruling out any peace plan they support.
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Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, claimed that Ukrainian forces have been “a complete failure†on the battlefield and are “incapable†of defeating Russia.
Tuesday’s attacks came two days after Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine claimed that Ukrainian shelling killed 27 people on the outskirts of Russian-occupied Donetsk. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a “monstrous terrorist act.â€
The Ukrainian military denied it had anything to do with the attack.
Peskov said Tuesday’s attacks should not be seen as Moscow’s response to the Donetsk strike. He repeated the Kremlin’s claim that its forces don’t strike civilian areas, though there is substantial evidence to the contrary.
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Deaths of Ukrainian civilians have helped stir international outrage over Russia’s invasion, and Ukrainian officials have pointed to the attacks in their efforts to secure further military aid from the country’s allies.
NATO on Tuesday signed a $1.2-billion contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the dwindling stocks of its member countries. The contract will allow allies to backfill their arsenals and provide Ukraine with more ammunition.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday was the latest foreign leader to visit Ukraine and announce a new aid package that includes a loan to buy larger weapons and a commitment to find ways to manufacture them together.
Ukraine’s allies have recently sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense amid concerns that Western support could be flagging. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France’s new foreign minister also traveled to Kyiv in the new year.
But the United States, Ukraine’s main supplier, is currently unable to send Ukraine any ammunition or weapons. While waiting for Congress to pass a budget and potentially approve more money for Ukraine’s fight, the U.S. will be looking to allies to keep bridging the gap.
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