Russian missile and drone strikes kill 16 across Ukraine, including a child, in the deadliest single attack reported so far this year.
KYIV: Russian forces unleashed their deadliest wave of attacks on Ukraine so far this year overnight. Officials reported at least 16 people were killed, including a 12-year-old child, and scores more wounded.
The strikes targeted the capital Kyiv and other major cities with drones and missiles. Fires burned out of control in parts of Kyiv, sending black smoke billowing into the night sky as firefighters battled multiple blazes.
Four people, including the child, died in Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Nine people were killed in the southern port city of Odesa, and two in the southeastern city of Dnipro.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the night had proven that Russia did not deserve any easing of global policy. “There can be no normalization of Russia as it is today,” he stated.
Zelenskiy added that pressure on Russia must work, emphasising the importance of fulfilling every promise of assistance to Ukraine on time. The air force reported shooting down 31 missiles and 636 drones, but 12 missiles and 20 drones hit their targets.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said rescue operations were ongoing and the death toll could rise. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged the international community to act immediately.
“It is immoral, counterproductive, and dangerous to delay sanctions against Russia or packages of support for Ukraine,” Sybiha said on social media platform X. Klitschko reported that Kyiv came under another attack early on Thursday.
A drone slammed into an 18-storey building in the capital, he said. Prosecutors put the number of injured in Kyiv at 54.
Rescue teams saved a mother and child from a building with a badly damaged ground floor. Missile debris also hit the sixth floor of an apartment building in the central Podil district.
A large fire broke out in a building in a northern district, injuring four emergency medical workers. In Odesa, nine people were killed and 23 injured in an attack on a high-rise building.
“The city came under several waves of missile and drone attacks,” wrote Serhiy Lysak, head of the local military administration. He reported damage to infrastructure facilities and a residential building.
The regional governor said port and critical infrastructure facilities in Odesa were also damaged. In Dnipro, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said two people were killed and 30 injured.
He posted pictures showing residential buildings ablaze following evening and overnight attacks. Another man was killed and four people injured in the surrounding Dnipro region.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said two people were injured in drone strikes.
