Russia conducted multiple missile and drone strikes across various Ukrainian regions, resulting in at least four fatalities, according to Ukraine’s military on Tuesday morning. This comes just a day after Moscow’s largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the conflict began.
Regional officials reported that a hotel in Kryvyi Rih, a central Ukrainian city, was completely destroyed, resulting in the deaths of two people. Additionally, two more fatalities were reported in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, located to the east of Kryvyi Rih.
The Kyiv region’s air defense systems were activated multiple times overnight to intercept missiles and drones aimed at the Ukrainian capital, according to the region’s military administration on Telegram. Reuters witnesses reported hearing at least three distinct rounds of explosions in Kyiv during the night.
On Monday, Russia unleashed over 200 missiles and drones, resulting in at least seven deaths and significant damage to energy infrastructure. U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the attack as “outrageous.” Analysts from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted late Monday that Moscow “likely lacks the defense-industrial capacity to sustain such large-scale strikes regularly.”
Several Russian military bloggers, including the pro-war group Rybar, described the Moscow attacks as an “act of retaliation” for Ukraine’s unexpected incursion into Russian territory—the first of its kind since World War II.
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On Monday, the Kremlin announced that a response to Ukraine’s incursion in Kursk would be forthcoming. However, three weeks into the conflict, Kyiv reports continued advances, while Moscow claims to be intensifying its bombardment of Ukrainian troops but has yet to dislodge them.
The extent and impact of Tuesday’s attacks are not yet fully known, but Ukraine’s air force reported the launch of multiple drone groups and the deployment of strategic Tu-95 bombers and MiG-31 supersonic interceptors from Russian airfields.
The Kremlin denies targeting civilians in the ongoing conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Russian defense ministry stated that Monday’s strikes successfully hit all designated targets including critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
Air raid alerts were in effect throughout the night for Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv, and other central and eastern regions of Ukraine, starting around 20:00 GMT on Monday. Serhiy Lisak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk, where Kryvyi Rih is situated, reported on Telegram that two civilians might still be trapped under the rubble of a hotel, and five others were injured in the attack. He also noted damage to six shops, four high-rise buildings, and eight cars.
In Zaporizhzhia, two people were killed and four others injured overnight, according to Ivan Fedorov, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region. Fedorov referred to the Iranian-made kamikaze drones, known as Shaheds, used in the attack, describing the severe impact of the overnight assault.
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