Russian missile strikes targeted three Ukrainian cities overnight including the capital, Kyiv, officials said yesterday.
At least five people were killed in strikes that hit the central cities of Dnipro and Uman.
Although Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure last winter, the massive strikes had tailed off in recent months. Kyiv had not been targeted by missiles in more than 50 days.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Most fighting is now taking place in the east for control of the industrial Donbas region, particularly the city of Bakhmut, which has been almost completely destroyed.
Missiles “killed civilians again in the city of Dnipro,” mayor Borys Filatov yesterday wrote on Telegram.
“A young woman and a three-year-old child died,” he added.
Air defence systems were also activated in Kyiv, local officials said.
“After a pause of 51 days, the enemy launched another missile attack on Kyiv,” local air defence forces head Sergey Popko said in a city administration statement.
“According to preliminary data, 11 cruise missiles were destroyed in Kyiv airspace. In addition to the missiles, two drones were shot down,” Popko said.
No casualties or damage to buildings were reported.
Ukraine’s air defence system has been bolstered in recent months by the delivery of Western equipment that has been crucial to the country’s war effort.
In particular, Kyiv received the sophisticated American Patriot systems this month.
While it has not faced missile barrages since early March, the capital was the target last week of an attack by 12 Iranian-made drones, eight of which were shot down without causing any casualties.
In Uman, a central city of 80,000 residents, a video broadcast by Ukrainian media showed a gutted apartment building with rubble strewn around it.
“An enemy missile hit a residential building. Information about the victims is being clarified,” regional police spokesperson Zoya Vovk wrote on Telegram.
Uman was hit by two cruise missiles, with one hitting a residential building and the other a warehouse, regional governor Igor Tabourets said.
“As of 7am, three people were killed and eight were injured,” Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Klymenko said, referring to the attack in Uman.
Ukraine said it has been preparing for months a counter-offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS