People rest in a subway station used as a bomb shelter during a missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, December 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
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Efrem Lukatsky/AP
People rest in a subway station used as a bomb shelter during a missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, December 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
All of Ukraine spent most of Thursday morning on air raid alert after Russia launched its biggest air strike in nearly two weeks. Sirens sounded in cities near the Russian border in the country’s relatively peaceful west. The extent of the damage remains unclear, but Ukrainian air defenses repelled several drones and missiles during the attack.
According to Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian forces fired more than 69 missiles at Ukraine. He said that Ukraine shot down all but 15 of them.
Responding to the attacks, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian official, tweeted that Russia wants to “destroy critical infrastructure and mass kill civilians.”
Military managers in at least six of Ukraine’s 25 regions have confirmed explosions in their areas.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the head of the disaster response team at the Ukrainian president’s office, said several residential buildings in the capital Kyiv had been destroyed.
An explosion near the playground rattled the windows of nearby houses. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko urged residents to charge their electronic devices and refill water tanks in case of shortages.
Klitschko said Ukrainian air defenses intercepted all 16 missiles fired at Kyiv and at least three areas of the city were damaged by debris. Three people were reported injured in Kyiv from falling debris after a missile defense fired a missile launched by Russia into the sky.
Maksym Marchenko, regional manager along the Black Sea, said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 cruise missiles near Odesa. But successful missile attacks left the city without electricity or water.
According to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, 90% of Lviv, a city near the Polish border, has lost power. The power outage forced diesel generators to come on-line to power emergency services. Public transport there was halted.
Attacks as large as Thursday’s have been less frequent since they began on October 10. Earlier this week, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said That’s because Russia is running out of cruise missiles.
“They usually attack with that kind of intensity once a week, then every 10 days, and then every two weeks,” he said. Liga.net. “In theory they will run out.”
Russia has report relies on Iran for supplies with long-range weapons, especially attack drones that can encircle Ukraine’s air defenses. New York Times report Wednesday that the Biden administration launched a new effort to prevent Iran from obtaining the parts it needs to manufacture and sell weapons, such as those appearing in Ukraine.
