Russia launches aerial assault on Ukraine

At least three were killed and 49 injured in missile and drone strikes, days after Kyiv’s daring attack deep inside Russia.

An explosion is seen after a Russian air strike on Kyiv on Friday Picture: AP /Evgeniy Maloletka

Russia launched a missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing at least three people in Kyiv, igniting fires across the capital and partially shutting down its metro system days after Ukraine embarrassed the Kremlin with a surprise strike on its bomber fleet.

The overnight assault included 407 strike drones and 45 missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force. Sites across the country were hit, including the city of Ternopil in the far west of Ukraine. Kyiv bore the brunt of the attack. Some 368 drones and 36 missiles were brought down, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in a post on social media that the assault had been launched “in response to the terrorist acts” of Ukraine. The ministry also said Ukraine launched 174 drones of its own at sites across Russia overnight. An “industrial enterprise” in Russia’s southwestern Saratov region was set on fire as a result of the attack, according to the governor.

Russia’s onslaught came just days after Ukraine’s daring covert drone operation on Sunday, which damaged and destroyed strategic bombers at sites deep inside Russia.

In a phone call with President Trump earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would have to respond to the attack, Trump said on social media.

Ukrainians had been bracing for a potentially larger attack, with officials sending out warnings this week that residents should be prepared to move to bomb shelters at night. The overnight assault, however, was no larger than many others that Moscow has launched without obvious provocation over the past three years.

Firefighters extinguishing a blaze in an industrial facility following Russian strike in Ternopil region. Picture: Ukrainian Emergency Service/ AFP

In addition to three first responders who were killed in Kyiv, at least 49 people across the country were injured, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who warned the numbers may increase.

“Russia must answer for this. They have been striking cities and villages from the first minute of this war in order to destroy life,” Zelensky said on social media. “If someone is not applying pressure and is giving the war more time to take lives — that is complicity and accountability.”

In a Kyiv bomb shelter early Friday morning, dozens of Ukrainians listened as the walls vibrated with the sound of explosions into the early hours of the morning. Families came, some with pets, making makeshift beds of blankets and yoga mats. They read out updates about the bombing from their phones to their neighbours.

Two young boys in the shelter kept asking what type of weapon could have hit as the impact from the bombardment vibrated the underground bunker. A group of pensioners greeted each other warmly, with one of them tapping through Telegram channels on his tablet and reading out updates about the strikes.

When the buzz of Russian drones could be heard overhead, those who had stepped outside to take smoke breaks would abandon their cigarettes and rush back underground. The air-raid alert lasted nearly five hours.

People clean debris in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian air strike. Picture: AFP

The attack comes as Trump’s push to broker a ceasefire between the two countries seems to be losing steam. Though Russian and Ukrainian officials have now met twice in Turkey in recent weeks — the first face-to-face meetings in nearly three years — they were unable to agree on anything other than prisoner exchanges.

Trump conceded on Thursday that the violence would likely continue for now, saying that neither side was ready to make peace.

“They are going to just keep fighting,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Maybe you’re going to have to keep fighting, suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering.”

The peace talks have done little to quell the violence. As the talks have gotten under way, Russia has launched its summer offensive, with more assaults in eastern Ukraine and elsewhere across the front line. Moscow’s forces advanced further during May — when the talks began — than during any other months so far this year, according to open source analysts.

Putin’s forces have also continued regular missile attacks on civilian areas.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has undertaken its own series of high-profile attacks. In addition to the drone assault on the Russian bomber fleet on Sunday, Ukrainian agents on Tuesday also detonated mines on the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russian-occupied Crimea, in southern Ukraine, to mainland Russia.

Wall Street Journal