Russian Attack Kills At Least 18 In Ukraine, Some Of Them Children Buried Under Rubble

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Kiev and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding more than 100, officials said Tuesday.

Due to the damage, some citizens were trapped under the rubble of the apartments. Emergency crews digging through the rubble recovered the bodies of a 3-year-old child and a mother and her 8-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, authorities said.

The attack spread from day to night and the sounds of explosions echoed in the cities. Authorities said 12 people were killed in Dnipro and 6 in Kiev.

Kyiv residents were in a state of tension for days after Russia warned about this issue. A major air raid was approaching and warned foreign diplomats to leave Ukraine’s capital. None of them seemed to heed the call.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more support from the United States and Europe, describing the massive overnight attack as “a clear statement from Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile attacks, these attacks will continue.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow’s air campaign against Ukraine, and Russian forces recently launched a powerful hypersonic missile. Oreshnik ballistic missile only the third time four years war.

Russia’s strategy aims to exploit Ukraine’s shortage of US-made Patriot air defense missiles with international powers. out of stock by Iran war. This left civilians particularly vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile attacks, although air defenses intercepted most attack drones.

Emergency services said at least 64 people were injured in the capital. While the explosions echoed throughout the city, 37-year-old Iryna Salikova, who lives in Kiev, spent the night in the bathtub for protection with her 3-year-old daughter.

Salikova said, “Our window was broken. Cobblestones flew into the children’s room,” but they were not injured. “Thank God we are alive. We are alive today, we are lucky today.”

Russia fired 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the country’s air force; the main targets were Kiev, the central city of Dnipro, and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia. Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 unmanned aerial vehicles.

Putin wants to get positive news from the conflict, which started when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022 and did not go as planned.

Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones It is pinning down Russian troops on the front lines, clogging Russian supply lines in occupied parts of Ukraine, and disrupting oil facilities deep within Russia that provide Moscow with vital revenue. This made the war, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, more visible to the Russians and increased the pressure on Putin.

US-led peace efforts failed due to the moves made by the parties No progress on key differences After the Gulf and the Middle East attracted Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy agreed to the unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump, but Putin refused.

In the statement made by the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was stated that the army launched a “major” attack with long-range precision weapons on military-industrial facilities in the Kiev, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsk and Sumy regions.

Putin signaled that Russia would not give up its attacks. Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a university dormitory in Starobilsk in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Luhansk region, which killed 21 people, added a “completely new dimension” to the war, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

Ukraine said it hit a Russian drone pilot training center in Starobilsk.

According to regional officials, 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 unmanned aerial vehicles hit at least 38 locations across Ukraine. The air force said debris from destroyed drones fell at 15 locations.

Ukraine’s state emergency service said at least four people were killed and 63 people were injured in Kiev, including three children. Residential buildings and other civil infrastructure were damaged in eight districts of Kiev.

During the attack, 65-year-old Olena Dniprovska and her 64-year-old husband Yevhen were injured in their home in the Podilskyi district of Kiev.

“I went out into the corridor with the phone and before I knew what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass and the door flew out,” said Dniprovska, who had traces of dried blood on her face and a bandage wrapped around her chin. “I ran to the front door and started looking for my husband from the room, but he too was blown away by the blast wave.”

“I have nowhere to live anymore, the flat is completely destroyed, there is no door, no window, no balcony. You can go out of the room directly to the street,” he said.

At least 14 people were injured and residences, garages and cars were damaged in Kharkiv. People were also trapped under the rubble of a four-storey apartment block.

AP reporters Illia Novikov in Kiev and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this story.

You can follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine