Kyiv: Russian missiles targeted Ukraine’s two biggest cities early Tuesday, damaging apartment buildings and killing at least five people after Moscow shunned any deal backed by Kyiv and its Western allies to end the almost two-year war.
The Russian barrage included more than 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles, officials said. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 21 of them.
The attack injured at least 20 people in four districts of Kyiv, the capital, including a 13-year-old boy, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko. Officials said initial reports that a civilian had been killed in the Ukrainian capital were incorrect, and clarified that the wounded person was on life support in hospital.
In Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, the onslaught killed five and injured 48, including four minors, as the missiles damaged around 30 residential buildings and shattered hundreds of apartment windows in icy weather, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russia used S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles in the attack, he said.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the temperature in the city was minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit). An entire section of a multi-story residential building was destroyed, trapping an unknown number of people there, Terekhov said.
Kharkiv, about 30 km (18 miles) from the border with Russia, has often felt the brunt of Russia’s winter campaign of long-range strikes that commonly hit civilian areas.
The attacks keep Ukrainians on edge while the 1,500-km (930-mile) front line has barely budged. Both sides’ inability to deliver a knockout punch on the battlefield has pushed the fighting toward trench and artillery warfare. Analysts say the Kremlin’s forces stockpiled missiles at the end of last year to press a winter campaign of aerial bombardment.
There appeared to be scant chance of an end to the war any time soon. Russia’s foreign minister defied the United States and other Ukraine supporters at a UN meeting on Monday, ruling out any peace plan they support.
Sergey Lavrov, the top Russian diplomat, claimed that Ukrainian forces have been “a complete failure” on the battlefield and are “incapable” of defeating Russia.
The attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv came two days after Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine claimed that Ukrainian shelling killed 27 people on the outskirts of Russian-occupied Donetsk. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a “monstrous terrorist act”.
The Ukrainian military, however, denied it had anything to do with the attack.
Peskov said Tuesday’s attacks should not be seen as Moscow’s response to the Donetsk strike. He repeated Kremlin’s argument that its forces don’t strike civilian areas, though there is substantial evidence to the contrary.
The Ukrainian civilian deaths have helped stir international outrage over Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, and Ukrainian officials have pointed to the attacks in their efforts to secure further military aid from the country’s allies.
NATO signed Tuesday a $1.2-billion contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the dwindling stocks of its member countries. The contract will allow allies to backfill their arsenals and provide Ukraine with more ammunition.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday was the latest foreign leader to visit Ukraine and announce a new aid package that includes a loan to buy larger weapons and a commitment to find ways to manufacture them together.
Ukraine’s allies have recently sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense amid concerns that Western support could be flagging. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France’s new foreign minister also traveled to Kyiv in the new year.
But the United States, Ukraine’s main supplier, is currently unable to send Ukraine any ammunition or weapons.
While waiting for Congress to pass a budget and potentially approve more money for Ukraine’s fight, the US will be looking to allies to keep bridging the gap.
Elsewhere in Ukraine on Tuesday, Russia fired missiles at Pavlohrad in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 43-year-old woman and damaging two schools and eight high-rise buildings, the country’s presidential office said.
In Balakliia, in the Kharkiv region, an 88-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman were rescued from the rubble of a house after Russian shelling, it said.
In the south, Russia attacked the city of Beryslav with drones, killing a 69-year-old man riding on a motorcycle.
