KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine with missiles and drones in an overnight onslaught that ran into the daylight hours of Thursday, when explosions echoed around Kyiv through the morning.
Ukraine is desperately short of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles that can counter Russia’s ballistic missiles, and Moscow’s fast-flying jet-powered drones have brought another challenge since the Russian military’s full-scale invasion began 4 1/2 years ago.
Ukrainian officials say Russia builds up missile stocks and launches major attacks every few days, hoping to exhaust Ukrainian defenses through the sheer weight of numbers. In response, Ukraine has hit high-profile targets on Russian soil as the countries inflict mutual destruction.
Russia says attack targeted war-related facilities
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a “massive” strike on targets in nine Ukrainian cities that began after nightfall on Wednesday. It described the targets as military-related, including industrial facilities, oil refineries, logistics hubs and port infrastructure.
Civilian areas, including apartment buildings, suffered damage. The barrage killed a 78-year-old woman in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and another person in the northern Kharkiv region, with at least 14 people reported wounded elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said.
“Russia continues to invest in missiles and in expanding its war, and that means more countermeasures are needed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media, noting promises earlier this week by European countries to provide more air defense assistance.
“It is important that these (measures) are also supplemented by additional ballistic missile defense packages” through European purchases of weapons from the United States, he said.
Though the Russian Defense Ministry insisted only war-related targets were attacked, Russia appears determined to hurt Ukrainian businesses and dent the country’s economy through attacks on private enterprise after Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes caused financial difficulties for Moscow.
Russian drones hit three major distribution centers, destroying depots belonging to a toy store chain and a confectionery company, and damaging another run by an electronics retailer, the companies said.
In addition, Moscow continued its efforts to wreck the Ukrainian power grid before the freezing winter months.
Four powerful glide bombs destroyed generating equipment at the southern Kherson region’s combined heat and power plant, forcing it to shut down, its operator Naftogaz said.
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