Russia this morning launched one of its most brutal bombing raids on Ukraine in the war so far, pounding Kyiv and other cities with waves of drones and missiles during Monday morning rush hour.
Nationwide air raid alerts were triggered in the early hours as Ukraine’s air defences sprang into action to shoot down a torrent of drones, which were launched as Moscow seeks revenge for Ukraine’s invasion of its Kursk region.
The attacks kept coming, and hours later Ukraine’s air force warned that Russia had deployed almost a dozen Tu-95 and six Tu-22M3 strategic bombers which let loose salvo after salvo of missiles.
MiG-31K warplanes – capable of firing fearsome Kinzhal supersonic missiles – and four naval vessels were also involved in the bombardment.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed that more than half of the country’s regions – fifteen in total – had been struck by missiles and drones, with thunderous explosions also heard in the capital Kyiv.
At least three people have been killed in the strikes and more are wounded, with casualties reported in the northwestern city of Lutsk, eastern Dnipro and the southern Zaporizhzhia regions.
Blasts were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Kremenchuk, Vinnytsia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, officials and eyewitnesses reported, with the extent of the damage still unknown.
A residential apartment block was destroyed in Lutsk, with rescue teams now working to evacuate survivors, the city’s mayor said.
Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo has ordered emergency blackouts across the country as areas of Kyiv, Odesa and the president’s home town of Kryvyi Rih were left without power. Water supplies were also hit in Kyiv and elsewhere.
NATO ordered its warplanes to fly over Poland and elsewhere on the alliance’s eastern frontier as the far-reaching attack unfolded.
The Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said on X that Polish and allied aircraft had been activated after Russia launched the attack which also targeted regions in Ukraine’s west and near the Polish border.
Ukrainians have been expecting a major Russian missile attack for some time.
The US embassy issued a warning last week of an elevated risk of attack around Ukrainian Independence Day, which Ukraine marked on Saturday.
Ukraine has itself stepped up its long-range drone attacks on Russia to try hit back at Moscow, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
‘The desire to destroy our energy will cost the Russians dearly: their infrastructure,’ Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram, apparently vowing retaliation.
Russia launched two waves of drone attacks earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s military said, with initial information showing no damage or casualties.
Up to 10 drones were destroyed on their approach to the city in the region around Kyiv at about 0230 GMT, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
At the same time, Moscow has claimed that a Ukrainian drone attempted to strike an oil refinery deep inside the country in the city of Yaroslavl, north of Moscow.
The Russian defence ministry added that its air defence systems had taken down 20 Ukrainian drones, including three over the Kursk region, where Zelensky’s forces launched an incursion almost three weeks ago.
A residential complex in the southwestern city of Saratov had been damaged by falling debris from drones destroyed by Russia’s air defence systems, regional governor Roman Basurgin said on the Telegram messaging app.
Video posted on Telegram by the Russian news SHOT channel showed what it identified as a high-rise residential building in the city, with a damaged side and several windows blown out across three floors.
In Engels, the top floor of a residential building was damaged, it added.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians. Each says its attacks are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to the other’s war effort.