Russia hits Ukraine with a barrage of missiles and drones

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Kiev was hit by another barrage of missile attacks hours after Russia carried out a second day of night strikes on the capital and other targets, including an air base in western Ukraine.

“Only six hours after the night attack, the aggressor country again launched a missile attack on Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Monday.

Popko said the strikes were aimed at “exhausting our air defense resources” as kyiv prepared to launch a counter-offensive to take back the occupied eastern and southern regions, which represent 18% of Ukrainian territory. The attacks came as a Russian official said artillery strikes hit several targets in an area bordering northeastern Ukraine.

“The attack on kyiv continues. Do not leave the shelters! Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on social media. Rescuers and fire departments were at several scenes where rocket fragments had landed, including a road in Kyiv’s northern Obolon district, he added. Surface-to-air defense missiles were spotted intercepting incoming aerial projectiles over downtown Kyiv.

The extent of the damage and the number of casualties from the later barrages were not immediately clear. But the Ukrainian Air Force, increasingly equipped with NATO-grade air defense systems supplied by Western donors, said it shot down 37 of 40 Russian missiles fired overnight across the country and 29 of 35 “kamikaze” drones supplied by Iran.

“We expect another reinforcement from our partners of the new air defense systems,” said Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force.

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Russia fired 11 missiles on Monday afternoon but “all targets were destroyed by Ukrainian air defense forces”. Earlier, officials in the Khmelnytsky region west of Kyiv said a strike hit an airbase, damaging five planes and a runway.

The attacks come a day after the Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted 58 of 59 drones fired in the early hours of Sunday, including 40 aimed at the capital as the citizens of kyiv prepared to celebrate the founding of the city.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in recent days that its forces had struck several military targets, but did not mention strikes on kyiv and other areas away from the front lines. Such attacks have been part of the Russian air campaign since the fall.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has carried out a number of cross-border attacks in recent weeks targeting Russian infrastructure and raising tensions over the ripple effects of the invasion launched by President Vladimir Putin 15 months ago.

Viacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod, said on Monday that Ukrainian artillery strikes cut power, damaged two industrial sites and injured four people.

The Belgorod region, about 50 km from Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has become a focal point for concerns about Kiev’s ability to strike inside Russian territory. Ukraine does not admit to carrying out such strikes but celebrated them.

Gladkov, who expressed rare criticism of the Russian Defense Ministry last week after two Ukraine-backed far-right Russian partisan groups raided the area, said the border had not been secure for some time.

“We live in a de facto state of war. . . It happens. The enemy is interfering,” Gladkov said, saying at least five Ukrainian-backed militias had carried out similar raids before last week.

Gladkov said the best way to stop the bombing was for Russia to annex the Kharkiv region – an unlikely prospect after Ukraine routed the Russian army in the region in September.

Oleg Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on social media that Russian forces struck a village called Kivsharivka on Monday with Iskander missiles, injuring five people.

Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv