Russian strikes kill civilians as Zelenskyy seeks air defenses

Russia launched a wide overnight barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine into Thursday, killing civilians, damaging homes and prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to renew his appeal for more air defense missiles from Ukraine’s allies.

Ukrainian officials said the heaviest casualties and damage were reported in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region and the western Lviv region. Al Jazeera reported that the attacks killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens. CBS News, citing Ukrainian officials, detailed at least eight deaths across several regions, including children killed in Dnipropetrovsk.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv and the surrounding region were attacked, along with Dnipro, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Ivano-Frankivsk. He said dozens of homes, businesses and infrastructure facilities were destroyed or damaged.

Russia used more than 70 missiles, many of them ballistic, and more than 280 attack drones, Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian forces intercepted more than 260 of the drones, he said.

“Given the critical shortage of air defense missiles from our partners, our warriors are accomplishing truly incredible things, demonstrating a very high level of professionalism,” Zelenskyy said. “This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people.”

In another post, he said “it is important to support the protection of life” and that protection from Russian missile attacks cannot be “left to Ukraine alone or to any one country alone.” He said delays in the delivery of anti-ballistic missiles and untimely assistance contributed to the destruction and casualties.

In Dnipropetrovsk, Russian forces carried out a mass attack that killed six people and wounded 10, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration. He said civilian infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. Among the dead were a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17.

Zelenskyy said the children’s parents were also killed in the same strike, while two more children were pulled alive from the rubble. “It was an ordinary home, blown into smithereens by a ballistic missile,” he said.

In the neighboring Poltava region, a drone strike hit warehouses at a private enterprise, killing one person, regional head Vitalii Diakivnych said. He said a delivery hub was also attacked, sparking a warehouse fire that emergency crews quickly extinguished. No injuries were reported there.

In Lviv, the number of people wounded in a Russian missile strike rose to 30 as rescuers continued working, regional military administration head Maksym Kozytskyi said. Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said the city was struck at about 4:45 a.m., with the worst damage to two residential buildings. More than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, he said. Children were among the injured, including one who was hospitalized.

In Kyiv, police said ballistic missiles killed a 31-year-old man and wounded two others. Residential buildings, a market, a garage cooperative, storage facilities and vehicles were damaged. In the Kyiv region’s Brovary district, five people were wounded, including a minor and two women, acting regional administration head Ruslan Oliinyk said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces launched a massive strike on air bases, arms factories, military telecommunications and logistics facilities in Kyiv, Lviv and several other regions. It also said Russian forces hit a ship in the Pivdennyi port and two ships east and south of Odesa.

Reuters reported that Poland scrambled fighter jets during the Russian attacks. Polish police later found a crater and debris in a field after an unidentified object vanished from army radar tracking it in Polish airspace during the strikes.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also said its air defenses downed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight. Penza Gov. Oleg Melnichenko said a depot belonging to the Wildberries online retailer was set ablaze, injuring one person and prompting the evacuation of about 200 workers. Wildberries said its warehouse in Sarapul, in Udmurtia, was also struck by a Ukrainian drone and set on fire, with workers safely evacuated.