Russian missiles and drones hammered Kyiv on Tuesday morning, officers mentioned, in what seemed to be a large-scale assault on the Ukrainian capital and different cities the day after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia promised to retaliate for a Ukrainian assault on a Russian metropolis.
The Ukrainian Air Pressure mentioned that the barrage concerned a few of Russia’s strongest weapons, together with hypersonic missiles that fly at a number of instances the velocity of sound. Air-raid alerts sounded continuously in Kyiv on Tuesday morning, as wave after wave of missiles rained down.
Loud bangs jolted the capital as its air-defense methods tried to shoot down the missiles. Huge plumes of black and white smoke rose all through town, chopping by the grey early-morning sky, as a number of buildings had been hit.
Vitali Klitschko, town’s mayor, mentioned that particles from intercepted strikes had prompted fires in a number of areas and that energy had been minimize off from a number of residential buildings and different amenities. Mr. Klitschko added that a big warehouse had caught hearth and that not less than 16 folks had been injured after a high-rise constructing was hit. There have been no confirmed deaths in Kyiv as of Tuesday morning.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis and close to the border with Russia, additionally got here below a large-scale missile assault, in response to Oleh Syniehubov, the pinnacle of the regional navy administration there. A minimum of one individual was killed and 41 had been injured, he mentioned.
The assaults had been launched hours after Mr. Putin had vowed to reply to what Moscow mentioned had been Ukrainian strikes on Saturday that killed 24 folks within the Russian metropolis of Belgorod. “From our facet, we are going to construct up the strikes,” Mr. Putin mentioned on Monday.
A day earlier than the strike on Belgorod, Russia had launched considered one of its largest air assaults of the practically two-year-old warfare towards Ukraine. That assault on Friday killed not less than 39 folks, wounded about 160 others and hit essential industrial and navy infrastructure in addition to hospitals and faculties, the Ukrainian authorities mentioned.
The Ukrainian authorities had warned for months that Russia was more likely to pound Ukrainian cities and goal their infrastructure as soon as the climate turned chilly, in a repeat of final yr’s winter marketing campaign towards the vitality grid. These assaults plunged Kyiv into chilly and darkness within the winter months.
It was not instantly clear what, precisely, the Russian navy was particularly making an attempt to hit on Tuesday. However within the middle of Kyiv, white smoke billowed close to a thermal plant that has been focused previously, and the native authorities reported injury to a water provide system in a single neighborhood.
Over the previous yr, Ukraine has obtained highly effective air-defense methods from its allies, together with Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries, which have proved profitable at repelling many Russian assaults.
Although Ukraine is effectively equipped with Western weapons, the surface-to-air missiles which can be wanted to intercept Russian missiles are briefly provide. And with a entrance line greater than 600 miles lengthy, essential air defenses have to be evenly distributed to guard Ukrainian troops from Russian assault helicopters and jets.
This has left Ukrainian forces in a troublesome place as they juggle sources, making an attempt to make sure that the entrance line and main cities reminiscent of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Lviv have adequate sources.
Ukrainian officers warned within the fall that Russia had stockpiled greater than 800 high-precision weapons in preparation for enormous winter assaults.
Within the assault on Friday, Russian missiles slipped by Ukraine’s air defenses due to a posh barrage that included hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles, in addition to drones. The deluge Tuesday morning might have been meant to repeat that technique.
